Dance Lesson
She was blonde
and older than me
we were both at
a junior high school dance
standing in opposite corners
of the gymnasium
talking to friends
she walked through
the sound activated shadows
and asked me to dance
wide eyed and off balance
I nodded and was shoved out
and into her arms
I stepped back and forth
butchered her feet
smiled awkwardly
we danced
to an unbelievably
slow song
I questioned her
between riffs
“I thought you weren’t interested?”
and she leaned in close
to my ear
and whispered, “I’m not,
but your friends don’t know that.
tell them you turned me down.”
and as I climbed my stairway to heaven
and waltzed back to the wall
of questioning friends
I did
just that.
Jake St. John lives in the woods on the edge of the Salmon River. He is the author of several collections of poetry including his latest, The 13th Round (Six Foot Swells, 2025), Lips Leave Scars (with Jenn Knickerbocker, Whiskey City Press, 2023), Night Full of Diamonds (Whiskey City Press, 2021), and Lost City Highway (A Jabber Publication, 2019). He is the editor of Elephant and is considered an original member of the New London School of Poets. His poems have appeared in print and online journals around the world.
