Up and Down

The music is thumping thumping thumping and there is

another sound

too, 

that only I can hear. 

It is a 

reverberation, a faint echo, 

a-pulsing-throb-a-millisecond-out-of-time. 

It is my LUNGS, lending their acoustics to the air within. 

The sound is coming up out of my throat, through my open mouth and it’s making it impossible for me to stop. 

To stop. 

I can’t stop. 

It is a second heart beat, a rhythmic kick, a bodily emission. 

It is a ventriloquist’s hand inside me, a phantom voice telling me to 

dance dance dance dance dance dance dance. 

And don’t stop. Never stop. Never be still again. 

Never rest, go on and on and up, and never come back down. 

God, I’m going to explode! 

Dance harder! Move, damn you, move! It’s not a game, it’s not a pill, it’s not another change, a chance, a start-over-and-do-it-all-again. It’s the end, if I don’t dance! 

Move my feet, escape, let it out! For f**k’s sake let it out! 

Rip it out of me! 

Faster, faster, faster, faster. 

Drown it. Go! Drown it, quick! Dance it out, drown it, put it to rest, never rest, never let it stop! 

This second pulse, 

this parasite, 

this… 

PLAGUE! 

They all have it, they all dance like they’ll never not dance again! 

They all feel the 

beat 

beat  

beat

beat 

beat

beat

beat themselves to death on the floor! 

Dance it out, dance it out! 

That’s you’re only shot, your only chance. Beat it out on the floor, stomp it out, grind it out, and never stop

         stop 

      stop 

    stop 

  stop. 

The air is thick with it! It’s a plague, they all have it! 

They’re all going to stop! Can’t let them stop! 

On and on and on and on, up and up and up and….

 

Down.