The Dance

Noise, noise, noise!
Everywhere!
People talking—girls and boys
Shouting, laughing, dancing,
Not a care.
Somewhere—music indistinct,
Just a distant rhythmic beat
Holds this mass of shuffling feet Together.

Noise, noise, noise!
Everywhere!
People talking—girls and boys
Shouting, laughing, dancing,
Not a care.
I hear it, yet I heed it not, nor speak;
I feel soft hair against my cheek,
A gently-moving body held quite close—
We two together!

—B.P.