24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
The world will watch, be under a spell
When you smile
The stars will twinkle, blink, and some of them fall
From high above..
And deep down below
The star fish will glide, move and dance
In the magical light of the depth of the sea..
All for your smile,
When you smile..
Come on, Baby! Let’s Dance!
We’ll open the floor with
A Boogie – let’s dance to
“It’s Raining Men”…
Let me teach you
The steps to the Cha-Cha
It’s so much fun!
Let’s fly to the rhythm of “Crush”
May I show you the essence of
Western Swing…
…hunt you down to the beat of
“Baby One More Time” –
Learn with me how to feel
The sensual moves of Mambo –
Let’s step it up a bit
To “Mambo Number 5” –
Raise the tempo to max
With the flavor of Jive –
Jitterbug to “Runaround Sue”…
Enjoy the blinding speed of Samba –
Sweat it out to the vigorous beat
Of the theme song of “Rio”
Then why not trot around the floor
To the foxtrot perfection
of “Come Fly With Me” –
Or glide in sheer ecstasy
To the waltz magic of
“Three Times a Lady”…
Merengue, just the two of us
Let’s kill the floor
To the magical beat of
“La Duena Del Swing”…
The mystery of Tango –
Guide me and let us glide
Across the floor to
“La Cumparsita”…
Then on to Bolero’s enchantment
Latin’s romantic dance
Let’s soar on the wings of Eagles
To Presley’s “The wonder of you”…
We’ll end with the passionate Rumba –
Beautiful Dance of Love –
And lose ourselves in music to
Boyzone’s “No Matter What”
Finally, just for fun –
If you’re still feeling up to it –
We can dance to the sensual
“Dancando Lambada”…
It will be a fun filled evening
Of music, rhythm and movement
So what do you say, my love,
Shall we dance?
Come on! Let’s dance…!
© 2015 Antoinette LeRoux
Song References (Unfortunately I lack the technology to upload music):
“It’s Raining Men” – The Weather Girls
“Crush” – Jennifer Paige
“Baby One More Time” – Britney Spears
“Mambo No 5” – Lou Bega
“Runaround Sue” – Dion And The Belmonts
“Theme from Rio” – From the Animated Movie “Rio”
“Come Fly With Me” – Frank Sinatra/Westlife
“Three Times a Lady” – Lionel Richie
“La Duena Del Swing” – Los Hermanos Rosario
“La Cumparsita” – Julio Iglesias
“The wonder of you” – Elvis Presley
“No Matter What” – Boyzone
“Dancando Lambada” – Kaoma
Her face has seen six decades
with freckles in the first ten years
that life eventually covered.
Those teen years survived the popping of zits
and make-up, and dripping of “Dippity-Do.”
Motherhood years brought a broken nose,
falling on a snowy concrete step,
but she saved that tummy full of baby.
The next decade of her children’s teen years
brought worries and demands and a few gray hairs.
The grandma stage has a slower pace
it wears smiles — and other looks if needed —
through storytelling, and lesson sharing.
They just love to hear what Mom or Dad did
that made Grandma smile or laugh or give them trouble.
by Nancy Ann Smith
After the divorce
After my daughters and I spent months redoing the house for sale
After endless showings and endless days keeping the house showing-ready
Today, with freezing rain and ugly skies, is moving day.
Bought on my own
The smallest place I have ever lived in
In my life
So tiny
And so perfect
Surrounded by soggy boxes
With a very confused dog and cat
I’m home.
Drones
When I was twelve years old, I enjoyed playing board games like Risk. In Risk, I tried to conquer the world – and so did my friend, Dwayne, who I used to compete against as we sat on the white concrete driveway behind our red brick row homes. Like military drones we hovered over a primary-colored, two-dimensional world that lay beneath us at ground-level. Dwayne and I took over countries one at a time by rolling sets of dice. Every outcome depended on chance. Whoever was lucky enough to roll the higher number conquered territories with make-believe armies. Whoever was unlucky got territories taken over. Continents fell to the victor. The game ended. No one was incinerated. No one was blown up. No one lost a son. No one lost a daughter. No one lost a loved one, like when I was twenty-one and thought I had to go to Viet Nam but didn’t because I got a medical deferment. But Dwayne went to Viet Nam. He fought and died there. He had skin in the game.
Today, alone, seated comfortably in a cushioned chair with a tablet computer on my lap, I watch YouTube videos of Drones playing Risk overseas in the Middle East. But I don’t have fun like I did when I watched the outcome of the dice in my driveway with Dwayne. Too many people have skin in the game, often young dark skin. Drones have no skin.
She is asking for your
best loaf of bread
as she beats you.
She smiles as she
walks away with
all of your bread.
Later, you thank her.
Where did you go?
All those times I called for you,
And there was no reply,
You were right in the room,
Holding your tongue.
It felt cruel,
And I began to feel
The waning of my love,
Like the dying of a flashlight.
No wonder I couldn’t see a thing.
But why, I wanted to know.
Why this?
And still you stood in silence.
It felt cruel
To deny the mind its pedantic need.
But my heart,
My heart was listening.
My heart speaks your silence fluently.
It is funny how much you can accumulate living in one place.
Trunks full of books, pictures, poems, stories, most hard to replace.
2500 miles away, an apartment waits.
Big Red wasn’t so big, but would try to do what was needed.
So, pile in the boxes, throw on a tarp with plenty of rope to keep it.
100 miles, the cat is not happy being in a cage, and lets you know.
200 miles, Big Red starts to make noises like she is ready to blow.
600 miles, Oh! No! it is starting to rain, pouring straight down.
1000 miles, you pull over to sleep as you see truckers are starting to frown.
1500 miles left, Big Red please don’t break.
Another 200 miles and you realize that gas is really starting to cost you.
At the 1500 mark, you begin to think friends were right, the cat thinks so too.
The next 500 miles seem to be all up hill, Big Red doesn’t like it at all.
The last stop you make, check the ropes, rearrange the haul,
200 more miles, no AC, and Arizona is baking.
A new life, A new place, A new hope, A new chance
Thank you Big Red, now you can rest.
I’m sorry to say, I move on from this marathon.
I signed up for all twenty four hours, but I’m finding it to be hard.
I have my three kids and everyone knows they come first.
For the rest of the night, they will be my first priority.
I wish everyone else good luck in the twenty four.
Maybe next year will be my time.
But for now, I’m a ‘halfer’.
Glad to have gotten this far.
I move on to goodnights and farewells and until next times.
Once upon a day,
In a place so cold that the
Windows were always coated with frost,
I awoke to the sound of an angel crying.
I asked him what was wrong and he told me
there was nothing I could do because
the sky was going to fall.