A Trance

I shuffle my boots, dancing behind ruffled golden hair.

The floor taught me the beat, but a trance is out there.

The music rolls on, as I walk past a drunk crowd.

In two sections they stand, as loudness gets loud.

I feel a long trembling; it’s something awry now spawned.

Beguiled in this trance, my feet still shuffle on.

The DJ’s records are spinning, and his words play to a cue.

A dance battle erupts, and the dance floor clears for just two.

In blue slippers the first dances, and cockily she struts.

She won the last battle, but has the crowd had enough?

Red boots up to his ankles, dancing unabashed and proud,

The second draws hoots, and then cries from the crowd.

The DJ pauses a moment, but the crowd finally decides,

That pride is a virtue, and change the real prize.

The crowd clears for the victor, they forgive him his sins,

As the DJ plays his records, a chord drops for the spin.

Lost in the moment, I feel so overwhelmingly small,

An auditorium divided, the floor feels likely to fall.

My attention is captured, drawn to a theatrical light.

Like Tolkien’s mythical Palantír, it draws forth my sight.

A spectrum of artificial lights, unlike the stars I once knew.

A euphoria besets me, as in a trance I am subdued.

The music rolls on louder, a harsh note on accents.

How long have I been here, how much time has it been?

How did I not notice, as masked guards slowly loomed around.

The music is still playing, but there’s people pinned to the ground.

Chained and too beaten, the guards escort them out,

And the tempo is rising, another chord is dropped out.

Still the crowd dances, in mad delight on their feet,

Bedazzled by bright lights, by a disharmonious beat.

Dancing to the light, not the moonlight of old;

They dance to a new rhythm, synchronized to be told.

And Outside grow fires, but I see only the floor.

The music is louder, louder still than before.

More bodies are taken, and the fires outside grow bold.

Lost in the trance,

Lost in the dance,

Will the music break,

Is there still a chance?