First Dance

First Dance

Noel Laflin

4-15-15

My shirt was neatly pressed,

But I was clearly stressed,

As I had never danced before,

Yet here was I – panicked to the core.

Easier said than done,

This dancing thing, old chum,

But seventh grade was not the place,

To be the first to set the pace.

So boys did gather to the right,

Shy girls avoided all the light,

The skittish clans sought no-man’s-land,

Pretending to just dig the band.

But on a table to one side,

As if to offer some a bribe,

Were mounds of cookies and pink punch,

The very stuff to break this bunch.

Soon boys were hauling off a cup,

Of the pinkish-sweetish stuff,

To some girl that they favored,

Hoping for a ‘yes’ to savor.

To the floor a couple took,

Glancing down with nervous looks,

But found their groove in moments flat,

Forward, sideways, back to back.

Proverbial ice now was broken,

Nary was a word then spoken,

Other than a, ‘care to dance?’,

Leaving nothing up to chance.

But I was nervous  as a flower,

Upon that wall – all in a cower,

Until this girl, with cup in hand,

Approached and nodded toward the band.

And so she led me to the floor,

I didn’t bolt out the door …

Instead I danced and hid my fright,

And overcame my angst that night.