Excitement, Teasing, Wonder, Disappointment, and Pain

They arrived at the party on time, in order
entering the ballroom from separate doors;
taking their places at center stage, vying
to one-up the other on the marbled floor
with the dance of their lives, the dance of their lives…

The crowd made room, standing on edges
to see the spectacle with a front-row view;
the orchestra began with a 5/4 tempo
the brass playing brightest, the woodwinds, bluest
and the strings were on fire, the strings were on fire…

Excitement, with proper deportment, asked Teasing
to be a partner during the burning first piece,
and in a voluptuous intertwining of limbs and composure
shocked the crowd with their mind-bending feats
with the abandonment of all modest reserve…

Not to be outshone, Disappointment asked Pain
to summon the night wind for the next number;
and as the orchestra played lightening and thunder
they let loose their fatal contagion, set free
by reckless abandon, by reckless abandon…

The crowd was in shock, the crowd was in awe
of the rolling, the gliding, the turning, the sliding-
two couples vying for fevered supremacy
throughout the night, their efforts providing
the evening highlights, the evening’s entertainment…

As the fireworks subsided, as the dancers concluded
they scanned the crowd to see who had won;
but the crowd was distracted, for Wonder had entered
the lights dimmed with a spotlight on one,
and the orchestra moaned, the orchestra hummed…

Delicate, begging for closeness, complex
giving new life to courtly composure;
from slower waltzes to long, gliding steps
the audience leaned in as if to join her
the orchestra ending with a minuet overture
that silenced the hall, the silenced the hall…

and Wonder departed, satisfied, the reigning Queen.