Watching the ‘Strictly’ Results Show on a Sunday night
Knowing what we know about the pain of the world,
who wins and who loses might feel like a betrayal.
Too many sequins, too much glitter, a vacuous
distraction and yet bring it, let’s dance
for the people in hold, the children en pointe all night,
for parents flicking and kicking, for spinning chorus.
Feeling as we do about the good and bad on every side,
impossibility of rights and wrongs, dark days ahead,
can we afford to enjoy this. Too much fake tan,
too much new choreography and yet we need joy
for the love of humans daring to dream, being alive
to the possibility that the roof won’t cave in, not now.
Watching as we must the beautiful bodies in flight,
strong in limb and resolve, who can deny them music.
Too many words, too much cheering, judges holding up
their scores and yet this is what we are capable of
for families who would tango for all they’re worth to not
be eliminated, to come back and dance again next week.
Pat Edwards is a writer, reviewer and workshop leader from mid Wales. Pat hosts Verbatim open mic nights and curates Welshpool Poetry Festival. Her work has appeared in Prole, Magma, Atrium, IS&T, as well as in anthologies. Pat has three pamphlets: Only Blood (Yaffle 2019); Kissing in the Dark (Indigo Dreams 2020); Hail Marys (Infinity Books UK 2022)