Whenever I skedaddle
up stairwells
or dive down flights,
swooping past risers,
I want to touch down
on each landing standing
with my tango partner.
Whenever outside, I want her
to become a sword,
parrying lunges from poles
and challenging anything
in my way,
unafraid of ambushes
of concrete and of glass.
Whenever I approach seas
of feet, I want her
to wave her slender figure,
luminous white,
for all before me
to part and make way
for a man possessed.
-- John Lee Clark