All in the Dance

They held a dance at the school.

The boy who invited her

First was an embarrassment,

But she felt she couldn’t say

No, since he was handicapped,

And no one else had asked yet.

So, she was stuck to start with,

But she came up with a plan.

She would meet him at the dance,

And she would dance with him first,

And then her girlfriend, Tina,

Would grab her to get some snacks

Or to go to the girls’ room,

And they’d circle in the back

Until cuter boys started

Asking for dances. With luck,

She could just keep dancing, and

Never have to be the date

Of the short, nerdy, pimply,

Handicapped boy on crutches.

Someone saw him leave the dance

And hissed at her, don’t you know

The old saying that you dance

With the one that brought you? Huh?

She laughed. I danced with him once.

Anyway he’s not my date,

I was being nice to him.

Whatever became of her,

With her Farrah Fawcett hair?

The boy would wonder later,

When he ran into Tina

Once at the Rijksmuseum,

Purely by coincidence.

Tina told him the story

About the shaming saying,

Looking a little ashamed,

And he told Tina, laughing,

How he’d cried in his pillow,

Then waved goodbye to Tina.