The DJ Plays “Dancing In The Dark”
by Sarah Tachau
After Hanif Abdurraqib
& finally I understand the Teenage Dream. I’m twisting cherry stems in the mouth of 18 & I’m prom night, spot lights & a body flailing to beat back the hours & as a fact of life there is always something happening somewhere so DJ keep it spinning won’t you? because my future is a strobe lit night & this floor is clearing out but that’s just cause the kids want some katy perry wait until they hear the thump shuffle thump like heels skipping & twirling over cement licked fresh by june rain & sweating pigmented innocence & its a shade of swelling cerulean blue one hue lighter than the indigo of my friend anushka’s gown & per her request I’m lifting my damn feet off the floor & I’ve quit the soulless bobbing of my knees & my hands are sand bags tied to rope & flinging from side to side & rib to rib & I’ve never started a fire too busy worrying about my little world falling apart or who might see the smoke but tonight I’m burning & crumbling & shivering & scraping the sky & so what I’m trying to say between the eclipsing suns above our heads is that to be young on the cusp of a little less young is to be kindling or the cobalt river’s shallow breath before the flood & my chest rises like the water wearing the banks of this night away & my longings are pooling from my pores & leaking all over the glossy floor & the sax is calling me into the golden heart of the night & out of this well-to-do suburban town where they’re carving me, you, us up alright & so DJ spin it once more, won’t you? I’m sick of trying to write this book in a language other than swinging limbs.