dancing from shadow to shadow

keeping the time with the music in his head

avoiding the stares, the mischevious eyes, the judgemental ones

they wouldn’t understand

this freeform flow of aquatic limbs on dry land

the heaving sighs

choking on air

it is beyond their capacity for reason

his dried up gills and dorsal finite placement

to them he is not a man

in his mind he is a dancer

fleet of foot and nimble movements

they just see a stomping fool

out of step with reality

maybe they are right

but this is his performance piece

his treaty on splintered bones and knocking knees

on love, on vivacious variables in a semi frozen tundra of misunderstood malfeasance

the movements of a bird of paradise hoping to entice a mate with plumage and swollen cheek

the rare desert peacock

the court jester in springtime review

hoping against hope this latest tragic pageant attracts the eye of the queen