DANCING WITH MYSELF by BILLY IDOL. Poem by Stephanie Holt.

New York City, Spring 1981.

Everywhere

 [here it comes]

drum declaring

guitar pushing up the temperature

bass warning and promise
 

[again]

the song of the moment it seems every night every nightclub

beat a little too fast for comfort up through the floor loosening hips spine shoulders

And Billy Idol’s singing me into the moment
 

[nothing to lose]

singing me into presence

snarling me into presence

sneering and riding those key changes higher and higher and losing his language
 

[ask the world]

my fingers curl and splay and flex

eyes close against the smoke and strobing refusing a not-me

no out-there no boundaries
 

[dancing with]

no one

needing no one

rolling shaking pumping
 

[sweat sweat sweat sweat … ]

long hair whipping

writing me into place

rewiring space
 

[uh-oh]

dancing me to myself

Stereo Story 845