Boy Could Dance
Steve Nash
When I lift my foot to the first step
I realise my body is no longer mine.
There’s a story in my family
about an overweight boy
being cheered and clapped
on a dancefloor as he moved
like Michael Jackson, limbs
defying logic, and girth.
Still, at family weddings,
the newer generations stare,
hopeful, point – that’s him!
He’s the best dancer!
No free bar could ever rekindle
that confidence, to forget
a room full of eyes and tongues,
to gather those feathers to my heels,
to skate backwards, turn dancefloor
into slick treadmill, slide like a searchlight.
I’d demanded ‘Beat It’, but he played
‘Thriller’, and still those crows
murdered to my feet and lifted me.
Once you can walk up these,
we can let you go home, the physio
says wiping my cheek, and I
stare at someone else’s feet
wondering, How did I forget this?
They lead me back to my bed.
Maybe tomorrow they’ll play the right song.
Steve Nash is a writer and lecturer from Yorkshire (UK). Steve is a widely and internationally published author of poetry and short-fiction, and a recipient of the Saboteur Award for Best Spoken Word Performer (winning from a shortlist that included Hollie McNish and Kae Tempest). His most recent poetry collection Myth Gatherers (Calder Valley Poetry) won Burning Eye Books' Not the Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection, and he is the co-editor and technical artist of Spelt Magazine.