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American Smooth by Rita Dove

We were dancing - it must have been a foxtrot or a waltz, something romantic but requiring restraint, rise and fall, precise execution as we moved into the next song without stopping, two chests heaving above a seven-league stride - such perfect agony one learns to smile through ecstatic mimicry being the //sine qua non// of American Smooth. And because I was distracted by the effort of keeping my frame (the leftward lean, head turned just enough to gaze out past your ear and always smiling, smiling) I didn't notice how still you'd become until we had done it (for two measure? four?) - achieved flight, that swift and serene magnificence, before the earth remembered who we were and brought us down.

//Ballroom Dancing// Sera Knight Mixed Media 25cm x 35cm Connection Turn the corner