Sunday, April 13, 2008

No touching

I wasn't going to go. Friday's are for dancing and Saturdays are for wild oats. But, they called. I made every excuse, but a fitting one, and then jumped in the shower and threw on a pair of jeans. If you skip Friday, they come lookin' for you on Saturday....


The Saturday faces are different. Piranhas and barracudas. Nothing like the manatees, tattooed and grey, comfortable in the warm blue waters of Friday nights...I wasn't at home, but I wasn't far from it....


In the murky, jerky waters.... I tipped my Michelob to the mirror and the faces lined up watching me watching them..... the elbows on the counter, stray dollar bills in "I fold" concession, laugh lines and frown lines sagging like a Salvadore Dali painting. And I ached for them. These strangers on the other side of the bar.


The band played everything except Rolling Stones and I sat out the set. Fidgeted. Smoked. Told stories.Twirled my love beads. Friday's are for hippies. This wasn't feelin' like a Friday.

"Do you wanna dance?" he said, inching closer, breathing canned beer on me, three lines into the slow song. "No touching" I whispered and he vanished, poof! and he was gone....until the next one. "No touching" I whispered and he laughed, took a hand from the crowd and disappeared.

"Now?" my friend asked, nodding to the dance floor, questoning, comfortable, but not sure, and I threw my head back and said "yes, but no touching".....

"I don't know how" faded into the lyrics, the music, the rhythm, the rhyme, the move me, the this way, the that way, the "I've never done this before"....and I "mmmmmmmm,hhhmmmmmed" him as we danced eyes closed, around the couples, between them, into the music.....close, but never touching. Driftwood in the waves

"She won't let you touch her?" beer~breath bellowed over the band, into our peace. I never opened my eyes. Moving. Swirling. Psychelic circles, paisley foot steps. "No, she wont let me" Lucas whispered, barely aware he was talking. "Then take her back where she came from!", BB belched from his four square podium, arms draped around his mortified prize, feet shuffling, rough red cheeks touching hers.....chest puffed out like a plaster rooster on a kitchen wall....

We gave him two fingers and kept dancing.....


Into 1976 at The Saloon. Into Christian's living room, fluorescent light's glowing, mermaid goldish growing in a bathub. Into yesterday. Tomorrow. Down the dirt road to Peace Creek. Through a midnight sand dune. Over a rickity tickity wooden bridge. We just kept dancing, no touching....just feeling. The music.

The guy with the canned breath and canned lines stopped, mid mindless step, and watched.

And then he surrendered.


"Peace......"
was the last thing I heard him mutter as he left the floor.....

24 comments:

justacoolcat said...

As long as the music can caress, even the hands of time must follow the "no touching" rules.

singleton said...

suchacoolcat.....
Yup! And I remember how we danced at concerts, free, no rules, just wherever the music took us....falling into the sound, as if it were an experience not just a song...
And then we grow up and change the nature of things....two steps to the right, one to the left....hold me like this, twirl, swirl....

peace~love
Dance from inside

Ultra Toast Mosha God said...

There might have been no touching, but this was all feeling.

Sandy Kessler said...

"swayin to the music"

SHE said...

great read! -enjoy picturing your friday night moves on the saturday night dance floor

love, peace.. (that's with two fingers) ~s.

JustRun said...

That really, really makes me want to go to a concert. As my 16-year-old self.

singleton said...

ultra....Clink! And the music becomes an ocean, roaring, tossing, turning,
moving.......drifting, floating, free......
You just can't do that when you're holdin' onto a stranger for 3 1/2 minutes.....

Sandy....
God, I love to sway....
to swoop.....

She....
Ahhh, you know, shadow dancer......
Peace, my friend.....Free!

Justrun....Do it! Do it soon! Not only will you love it, but the band will too! They're up there playing for soul......

Peace~Love friends
It's Tuesday,
Dance in the Kitchen!

~Babs said...

Floating, touch free, two fingered dancing.
Drifting into one of your 'others'.
Love it.

Anonymous said...

Lol...are you sure that's what he said? Hahahaha... kidding!
I was there... for the moment, eyes closed and a world away, a thousand times over. PALSILYSVM

singleton said...

Babs....That's exactly it! Free to be.....to feel.....

Skinny....Muah! LOL! And didn't I tell you this whole story at 2:30 in the morning, smiling, because I know you were there! Peace~love my sweet sib

Peace~love friends
We've made it to Wednesday and the week-ends not far away!

Ultra Toast Mosha God said...

This made me think of 'Careless Whisper' with its 'Guilty feet have got no rhythm' line.

Anonymous said...

Lol....silly, beautiful girl...Yes You Did! hahahahah. I love it! Peace, Sister Sing, is the true Love Drug! ILY!
(Just bopping home for 10 min., to get my dose of the Hippie Parade... ICYT)

skinny

Anonymous said...

ps...Ultra Toast... i love how your mind traveled here... peaceful feet are totally free and full of rhythm. I believe it to be true!

skinny

~Babs said...

You know,,,I KNEW this was reminding me of something, and I couldn't quite place it. But here it is in the little book:

"You know
Saturday night is better than Friday.
If you don't make out you can take home the great American consolation prize,thirty cents worth of love,
the Sunday paper."

singleton said...

Ultra....Wow~ I'm sitting in the back.....Sayin' "amen, now".....
Good song from way back when.....

Skinny....:):):):)Somethin' makes me feel like we're roundin' the bend, sisterlove! TTYS

singleton said...

Babs...Clinkity! Tink! We were typin' in tandem! And I love it! "thirty cents worth of love".... Yeah, you gotta love him....

Me said...

Your style is truly evolving. You have an incredibly artistic eye that is ever-growing into a more creative splatter against any canvas. I am impressed, as always, and if not more than ever.

singleton said...

Orhan....
Speaking of style,
got that passport yet?
:) Muah!

The CEO said...

I remember those days with great clarity, I just can't tell the story as well as well as you or your sister. Thank you for that!

singleton said...

CEO....Ha! Then you too should take a spin on the dance floor, slipping yesterday's magic into the now......and back again! Close your eyes.....and ride!

Maithri said...

My Beloved friend,

I've read this at least twenty times this week... In between ward rounds... On 4pm 'lunch' breaks (who can really call 'lunch at 4pm' -lunch?...) Felt moved, awed, transported to the dance floor each time...

And I've written several half-responses too... only to have my pager bleep and whine halfway through... tearing me away....

What I wanted to say was...

There is such a music in you.

Wild melodies, tender harmonies, a symphony of presence...

Your dance floor is the broken world....

And you dance to the song your heart hears.. not some contrived accompaniment handed to you by the frightened conformists.

Thank you soulful butterfly
for dancing through
my world

I have a sweet
addiction to your
words

your passionate peace

I pray that
a thousand others
feel the same
high

Sending you peace
dancing
on the waves,

Maithri

singleton said...

Sweet Maithri.....
When you get to Florida
there will be dancin'
in the wind
the streets
under street lights
tents
martini moons

And there will be a chorus,
Janis Joplin
in the wind,
Aaron Neville....
the hummingbird...
echoing over
the dunes....

And laughter
sudden
and silly
and as old as
Grandfather Tree...

Meet you at the sea
my friend....

Gill said...

Isn't Maithri something else? Kisses to that man!
Singy, I loved this so much. I don't blame the good doctor for reading it twenty times.
you are a genius girlfren.
And, you had me at "mid mindless step".

You do know you are a genius? Your I.Q. bursts off the page in triple time!!!!
xoxo

singleton said...

Blue....
I join you in Hallelujah's to the healing man! The chorus, backin' you up, singin' in sync!
It's not genius friend, it's real life....
watchin' it, livin' it, lovin' it!
Peace~love sweet girl