I find "The Hustle"
on a friend's "Pure Disco" CD
and burn it to my iPod.
With the door closed,
the lights dimmed,
and headphones jacked in
I finally push play.
Sultry, hushed voices
enjoin me to
"Do it!"
and a tweety flute,
a cheezy electric guitar,
and a not-altogether unpleasant
trumpet begin their silly melody.
"Do the Hustle!" the voices command
like Sirens,
and I am suddenly seven years old,
laying in my bed,
the Superman bedspread pulled up.
My parents are in the next room
playing records,
trying to learn this dance,
and the tango, and other last gasps
of form in modern art,
while avoiding the coffee table
and the black vinyl love seat.
Things that make grown-ups happy
are incomprehensible
and they can only be watched
like cloud banks forming on the horizon.
Tonight I am in many places and times
as the horn blows
and the strings and bells accompany,
and somewhere there is the sound of soft footsteps
and laughter - I am not sure of when they are
or I am -
"Do it!" -
but the clouds are pink and gentle
and beyond them is a safe sea.
on a friend's "Pure Disco" CD
and burn it to my iPod.
With the door closed,
the lights dimmed,
and headphones jacked in
I finally push play.
Sultry, hushed voices
enjoin me to
"Do it!"
and a tweety flute,
a cheezy electric guitar,
and a not-altogether unpleasant
trumpet begin their silly melody.
"Do the Hustle!" the voices command
like Sirens,
and I am suddenly seven years old,
laying in my bed,
the Superman bedspread pulled up.
My parents are in the next room
playing records,
trying to learn this dance,
and the tango, and other last gasps
of form in modern art,
while avoiding the coffee table
and the black vinyl love seat.
Things that make grown-ups happy
are incomprehensible
and they can only be watched
like cloud banks forming on the horizon.
Tonight I am in many places and times
as the horn blows
and the strings and bells accompany,
and somewhere there is the sound of soft footsteps
and laughter - I am not sure of when they are
or I am -
"Do it!" -
but the clouds are pink and gentle
and beyond them is a safe sea.
**
I like the beginning of this, and most adults can relate to it. The only thing that seemed out of place to me was learning to do the Fox Trot, since it comes from another generation.
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