Dancing Master - The Hanging Version.

Elle se precipita alors dans le jardin d'arbres morts, pars les sentiers de laves et de micas, et les roches brulaient sous ses pas - muscovite limpide comme une fiancee, pirite, silice d'eau, cinabre, azurite pareille a un eclat du grand Jupiter, malachite - ensemble broyees, ensembles pressurees, joyaux en fusion, planetes calcinees, transmutees par l'air et le feu, le temps et l'espace, et fondues dans l'immobilite des mineraux, immobilite de la peur de la mort et de la peur de la vie.

Anais Nin: 'La Maison de l'inceste'

Transported by their guilt
the dead despised and disappeared of history
fettered by chains of hypocrisy
dance in irons
flogged in the name of property
raw as bacon for rash acts
they dance
as does the whip on their backs
amongst ghost gums
in a crystalline forest beneath petrified leaves
fear on their fingers
down on their knees
they dance
upon Tyburns tree
for the mandrake

...save the last dance for me.

The beauty of the body
in dancing depends
on the turn of the elbow and wrist
perform broken pirouettes
and whatever steps
to follow the person you salute.

Dressed in rags of gladness
ribbons fluttering and flattering
dandies trim gay and uncaring
hold aloft their glasses of fashion
they are the mirror to reflect their faults
their vanities graced with no favour.
They dance upon nothing
in a deadly suspense
posies in gloved hands
and white suits of innocence




Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity
and in sin did my mother conceive me
Behold,thou desirest truth in the inward part
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart
purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean;
wash me and I shall be whiter than snow
fill me with joy and gladness;
let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice
hide thy face from my sins.. The Hanging Psalm 51


When you are dancing
as at the beginning
then so at the close
the fall the rise
the heel the toes
when leaping in the dark
soles stained from bare foot dancing
who is the final partner
that you now full face
when the music ends
when light descends
who is the final partner...
When you are dancing

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