The Lessons

I waited,
As the ad forewarned,
For twenty days
To learn in less
How to dance
The rumba and the salsa,
The tango and the hop.

The mats I laid upon
The floor were arrowed,
Numbered and more like
Movements in how to split
The atom or remove a thorn
From a lions paw.

I practised so much,
at night, the ceiling was
A nest of steeping feet,
As if I had come across
A war party lost
amongst the snow.

Of course, when the time
To dance became real,
The recollection of the tempo
And the hollows and instructions,
Filled my view like the streaks
Of rain across the windscreen
In my car, beating in rhythm,

And the silence between us
Like waiting for a parcel and
Then the sound of what you
Waited for, arriving.