David Michael Jackson

So We Dance
…………….By Ron Olsen

I danced on his grave
The dance of the living death

So little time left
For any of us
Left behind
No cause
No purpose
So I danced

It seemed like the thing to do
It felt right

Go away
Just leave
From under the ground
Deep below
In a wooden box
The protest came
I called out to myself
As I danced

It seemed like the thing to do

I felt no pain
No guilt
Just the ongoing
Fullness of revenge running out
Pointless revenge
Spiritual self-immolation

Not a part of the whole
An observer
Separate from the rest
Outside of myself
Watching me as I danced
Unfulfilled
A witness to futility

Interaction, contraction, reaction
Shooting craps again and again
Until it ends
And the Reaper grins
At our naïve failure to live for something
Other than ourselves
Other than to be
And to be satisfied with being

So we dance
Pretending we have meaning
Giving us the courage to believe we have something
Beyond one another

Suddenly it’s 69 again
At some grungy bar in Minneapolis
CS&N are screaming
Rejoice!
We have no choice
But to carry on

Now it is sampling
Then it was stealing
Either way, the truth still works

So we dance

Better to dance
Than to lie down and die

© Ron Olsen – all rights revert to author following publication

 

 

Ron Olsen

Ron Olsen is a veteran cross-platform journalist based in Los Angeles, California, United States.……Ron Olsen at Wiki
He writes, “I’m a semi-retired Peabody Award winning journalist who now writes
essays and an occasional poem.”

Ron’s  Site is The Working Reporter News, opinion and resources for journalists

Ron’s blog web news & commentary

 

  

  

  

 

………….art by david michael jackson….”The Dancers”