Dwm Sheila

MY DANCE WITH SHEILA With firm resolveI I strode across the hall To where the girls were standing in a row My focus: Sheila, object of heart’s call In fervent hope that I might be her beau The scene was set: the annual ‘soirée’ (Intoned as ‘sworry’ in our dialective) In school hall cleared for action of the day Gramophone wound up for music retrospective Deemed too young for those modern ballroom new steps We capered dances from grandparents’ time Old fashioned waltz, Valeta and the Two-steps Should cleanse all sensual thought from our young minds Between polished shoes and hair in Brylcream freeze Vain assays at ‘debonair’ were keen applied Though short trousers revealed matching pale grey knees Ever hopeful this aspect could be denied Should I execute a strategy well planned Gain my chosen partner for the final measure We might then go out together hand in hand To share lemonade and moments I would treasure Decades on in life’s experience recall All the thrills and chills of myriad times spanned Could I re-evoque such moments pain and all I would choose that day when I held Sheila’s hand 2 March 20 Kim Rodrigues’ DWM Contest