set fire to the night (10/25)

set fire to the night
the Christmas sparkles cried 
in bell-like voices tangling 
with raw psychiatry
of string band and square dance
of ballad and craftsman
a coming-together of hands 
clasping a secret glow between
bodies
like cupped fireflies 

***
eKY Flood Relief Annotation 8/23/22
I first learned to square dance at the Seedtime on the Cumberland festival. Under the tent, the whirling bodies were delighting instead of laboring under the layers of summer breath. The caller's voice swung us into a sashay, then a do si do. Support a future of dance and communal artistry in Appalachia after the devastating late July floods: https://tinyurl.com/seedtimefest

Return to the Kentucky Collection.