POETRY

Danse Macabre

A poem for those who are out of step

Image — author’s own

riffing on normality
in my mournful, dismal key

flat when sharp is requisite
register neutral, pallid, grey
dead(pan), some observers comment
but they have chosen not to see
me, riffing on normality

minor, melancholic missteps
dodging cracks beneath bloodied feet
I grasp another poisoned chalice
slow dancing in shadow’s helicity
that’s riffing on normality

my Athenian tragedy is ready, waiting
down to darkness, I slip-slide
my friends (they have no grace or favour)
are ghostly wraiths, one, two and three
we’re riffing on normality

dancing me to my old quickstep
bones and ashes fill my shoes
I run counter, chords adrift now
in my mournful, dismal key
I’m riffing on normality

I often feel that I am out of step with many things in life. Sometimes it’s a painful…