dance to the knock
of bamboo sticks
on moonlit streets.
the mid-May
swelter curves
in between your breasts
and drops its tang
into your throat.
with your hips,
the world revolves.
dance
like a roar in the streets,
an ocean stampeding
past the houses,
a bustling, foamy pour,
mad and glinting
with excess.
and love
your dancing neighbour!
for she wants
the same things as you
and when you look
into that childish face,
into those need-mad eyes,
you can forget
what went before.
and love
your dancing neighbour!
for in her, you are mirrored.
your elbows,
your swan-like ankles,
your valleys and rivers
and the boats you sail in them,
the triangle
of your body and the
roundness of your pant
in her, you see them all.
*First published in Yellow Medicine Review.
**Obando Fertility Rites is a Filipino dance ritual.
