One-Two-Three
One-Two-Three
One-Two-Three
“It’s walking down the sidewalk
on the balls of your feet.
It’s moving in circles as you go,”
she teaches.
“Keep your body in balance,
your back straight,
your partner firmly in hand.”
I’m surprised to hope that this hour
of my embarrassment will never end,
for my beautiful instructor
dances the way she breathes,
with the grace and ease
attained in the performance
of any necessity of life.
When she leads, I bend
to her steps perfectly;
when I lead, I’m the essence of klutz:
trying to remember my right from left,
trying to keep my heels up when I turn,
trying to count like a toddler to three.
“Relax into the truth of yourself,”
she says.
“You were born wanting to waltz.”

–Jim Lally,
Stick Tight Man (2010)
Accents Publishing

More from Stick Tight Man and Jim Lally:

• “GPS”
• “Stick Tight Man”
• “Old Couple”
• “Stick Tight Man: An Appreciation” by Matthew Haughton
• “Buddhism”

Jim Lally is a Kentucky poet known for his curly white beard and straggly ponytail. He is a member of the Poets’ Supper, Poezia, and Holler writers’ groups as well as the founding member of Writers at Artcroft. He graduated with a degree in English from Brescia College where he was the editor of the school’s first literary magazine. Jim has been the Spoken Word artist at the Walk for the Arts in Berea for the last two years. He is a partner with his wife, Jennifer Gleason, in the organic farm business of Sunflower Sundries. His poetry ranges from the irregularly scattered to the tangle of the stranglehold.