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Pamela Twining
LET’S DANCE
Let’s Dance to the End of Everything
the final cries of a Social Generation
as we begin an age of isolation
our skins still soft and Begging
to be touched
our lips our lips
our fleshy selves pulsing
to the desire for Contact
our fleshy selves
the softer parts
not Studyin War the gentle parts
demanding Peace
soft but resolute
Lets Dance
imagining the soft collision of Bodies
a Crush of other selves
awash in music
twisting and spinning in the Waves
the Waves
Leaps of Faith
Injustice Rules wherefore then Faith
it Is in Human Nature to Hope
(… springs eternal for a Reason
yes it does)
there are Always those
who Believe in a Just and Conscious Future
a Time of Love Among BeingKind
that was essentially the msg of Jesus the Christ
and many After him
but as far as I know
in patriarchy at least
he was the First
and So we still keep
writing dancing making music painting
still keep making Art even in Desolation
the Cold and Horrible
or the Broiling Skin Popping Crispy Critters
the End Result of unfiltered sunlight on the surface
Dig Deep Dig Deep
is that the only way to Come Together
in the Mines
tunnel down down
down through mycelium mast and mould
through foetid dank and loamy Earth
Soaked with punishing rains
not punishment for the living beings anchored in the soil
they Belong
it’s We who are the Secret
the Unnamed
the Uninvited
the Storm Troopers taking Over all the habitat
and killing land and sky
destroying Water
poisoning the Wells of Kindness Strength and Mercy
in pursuit of Moloch
MOLOCH
can we Live without Sunlight under ground
away from a Sun now Deadly
sneak up-surface twice a month
for Ceremony Moon Tide
mångata the mystic path
North to Moon
through ether to the Mother
disappearing in Welcoming Arms
And it Really Was a Game
Congratulations All Around and Thanks
just those of US who Thought it was Life left hanging
w our jaws scraping the tarmac
No Way as even ones we Trusted Most
began to High Five and Celebrate
the ascendance of one who’s Less
So Much Less than what was Dreamed
and those Pragmatic sunzabitches
Insist there’s nowhere else to go
I Beg to Differ
Let’s Dance!
for Children whose memories
are Locked Away
for elders waiting withering wanting
Touch Denied
Let’s Dance!
for a planet pulsing to new life
in spite of All
for the End of the Road in sight
for all the Love we forgot to give
for all the Laughter at the cosmic joke
Let’s Dance!
Pamela Twining has traveled the US with her partner, poet Andy Clausen, performing her work in California, Colorado, New York City, Michigan, Wisconsin and places in between. Her work has appeared in Big Scream, Big Hammer, PoetryBay, The Café Review, Napalm Health Spa, and Heyday!, among others. With Andy Clausen, she is co-curator of “The Invisible Empires of Beatitude” page at The Museum of American Poetics (www.poetspath.com) and for several years, she co-produced the Janine Pommy Vega Poetry Festival in Woodstock, NY, where she and Clausen reside. She is author of four chapbooks, “i have been a river…”(2011), “utopians & madmen” (2012), “A Thousand Years of Wanting; the Erotic Poetry of Pamela Twining” (2013) and “Renegade Boots” (2019).