The Lone Dancer

I wrote The Lone Dancer in 1987, 19 years old. It describes the longing for a lover and the loneliness of nights filled with unsatiated desire. Compare this poem to Leaving, also from 1987.

Here late at night

While you sleep

With the one you love

I dance alone

To the music

That moves my soul

Just as you move my body.

 

I dance while others sleep

When the world lies deaf

I weep

The Lone Dancer

Doomed to sway alone

Sweet solitude

For you are asleep.

 

And you cannot hear me

You are beyond me

So, I escape

To another world

Where you are just a warmth –

 

I burn, I burn

But I burn alone.

 

See the fire leap into my eyes

Hear me moan, my sighs

As I soothe myself

To peace

Yes, I am doomed to dance

I was born to dance alone.

 

Even you cannot save me

From my fate –

 

So, next time you sleep

With the one you love

Try to listen for my feet

Dancing incessantly through the night

To a painful, demoniacal beat.

 

Hear for my voice

When I call out your name

Into the unanswering emptiness

Hear for the echoes

Of my heartbeat

As I lose myself in movement.

 

Listen, listen, listen!

For the one you desire

As she loves the body

You have come to want

As she moves the body

That has finally come to life –

 

Dancing, dancing through the night.

 

Vanita Shukla Hork, 1987

 

If you liked this poem, you will enjoy my book Memories from another Lifetime: Desire.  Available on Amazon, free on KindleUnlimited. Please do leave a review.