A Dancing Evolution

Dancing
Our feet fell
That reckless rhythm only kids know
We followed the arrows
Technicolor, jumping from the black light
Cutting a path
For us,
By us

Left
Right
Up, up
Down
A maze of footprints
Into the unknown

That’s how we met, of course
With simultaneous step
Laughter (you were so much better than me)
Music to jump to
They merged and twisted together
And I wasn’t sure which was which

Now…
We dance alone
My own shoes clunking,
Heavy in the air, suffocating
Screaming for company
Bringing my soles down

But sometimes
Sometimes your faded laugh reaches me
It winds its way around the eighth notes
Into my feet
Into yours
And we’re dancing together again
Aging children
With a stranglehold on the arcade
Falling over each other with last ditch attempts
To capture something gone, floating over the horizon

Like you
Swallowed by the water
Screaming for company
Your soul snatched away
Like the forgotten arrows, moving upward

And I know,
I know
You’re dancing on clouds
Marshmallow fluff swallowing your feet
A little kid again
Wings beating out the drum line
Feathers the color of scrolling arrows
Always shifting,
Changing, in the light.

Wishing I would do the same

A poem about a friend who passed away.