tango in heaven

Jeremy S. Turner 1980 (Mountain View, Arkansas)

Lyric

hands, masculine and twitching
with youth, yours grasping mine,
in a secret, solitary dance
to a band streets away

the wind wrapping the
velvet cloak of night around us,
hiding what should not be seen
by the town’s children

no shining stars to wish upon
no full moon to illuminate
the insanity and intensity
of this stolen moment

we sigh and sway, dip and twirl
shunned and doomed to lead
the shadow of a life
away from the other dancers

silence, only the music of bodies left,
cruel dawn just minutes off,
yet time enough for the outcasts
of love to have one last tango in heaven

About this poem

My first boyfriend an I met at a country dance in rural Arkansas. We couldn't dance in public so we went a block away and danced in an alley where we could still hear the music.

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Submitted by jeremyt.40101 on June 30, 2023

: 34 sec read
: 117 Views

Quick analysis:

Scheme	XXXX XXXA XXXX XXXX XXXA
Closest metre	Iambic tetrameter
Characters	586
Words	115
Stanzas	5
Stanza Lengths	4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Full analysis for tango in heaven »

Jeremy S. Turner

I am a forty-three year old gay man with degrees in English Literature and Theatre. I live in rural Arkansas near the town of Mountain View. I live life for my beautiful nieces and nephews and my cat. more…

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jeremyt.40101
Thank yoy. The poem has mature characters, but it was inspired by the first real dance I had with my fiirst boyfriend. We were sexteen and our small town had a an anual celebration and dance in June. We could not go two-stepping in the square. So my boyfriend whp was an exchange student, took me to an allley three blocks away. We could still feel the music, but we were doing a different kind of dance. Lol more »
LikeReply9 months ago
ritchiechelle
This is just fantastic. So personal and heartfelt. One of the best poems on gas love which I have read. Well done!
LikeReply9 months ago

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