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The Square DanceAuthor(s): Patrick O'LearySource: The Iowa Review, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Fall, 1991), p. 167Published by: University of IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20153190 .
Accessed: 12/06/2014 19:45
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The Square Dance
What must they be thinking? as the bootheels stomp time
on the barn's sawdust floor
8c the rotting boards whine
up & down rusty nails
like a plucked thing of music, not the fiddle, not the banjo, not the Jew's harp or the caller
in the polyester collar
who sells life insurance
& like hick electrons we hoot, sweat & hoe down,
& locked at the elbow we swing & do-si-do
while the light bounces off
galvanized washtubs
full of ice, beer & breasts
under gingham do tom-toms
& we all come together,
touching wrists in the middle
like a flower closing up for the night, till we blossom,
reassume goofy orbits
while the dumb/dumb bass picks & grins, Nate spits tobacco
as below us, bewildered
in stalls, watching steam rise
off manure minarets
& the windows of rain,
listening, listening to the yahoos who dance
as they stand fingerless, unable to hold instruments
? the horses?
167
This content downloaded from 195.34.79.208 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 19:45:41 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
