Sitting One Out
A Lost-ish Challenge Entry
Silent disco is a misnomer
Even when you take the headset off
And the music in your ears disappears
The sounds do not
There are stomping feet
And people screaming out off key lyrics
Not just one song, but three
The greens shout “I’m Mr. Brightside!”
The blues are singing “Wagon Wheel”
And the reds are feeling “Drunk in Love”
For a moment you’re on the outside
Looking in
Or listening in
Painting yourself as a wallflower
As you linger there
Suspended for a few seconds
In the dissonance
Before you put your headset back on
And rejoin your circle of friends
But then fast forward a year
To bare feet
On a kitchen floor
To where there’s real silence
Now that the crying has stopped you hear it
You can feel it
Because when you sit out enough dances
People stop asking you
So you know after fifty Friday nights
No one will notice your absence
Then in that silence you yearn
Just to be a wallflower again
Present if not a participant
Because from the fringe
You know you can find your way back
But from this far away you’re lost
You’re a dancer
Who doesn’t dance anymore
Or maybe just not yet
You turn on a song
It’s not one you’d ever dance to
But it’s not one you’d fall asleep to
With tears on your cheeks
It’s a starting point
And you always have to start somewhere
Author’s Note: This poem is an entry for Gabriel Huizenga’s Lost-ish Challenge. Check out the details in the story linked below.
About the Creator
D.K. Shepard
Character Crafter, Witty Banter Enthusiast, World Builder, Unpublished novelist...for now
Fantasy is where I thrive, but I like to experiment with genres for my short stories. Currently employed as a teacher in Louisville.
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Comments (20)
"No one will notice your absence Then in that silence you yearn Just to be a wallflower again" I love this part so much!!!! You made me smile while making me reflect. Congratulations on your win in Gabriel's challenge!
I don't know how I missed this one, D.K.! This is such a relatable and powerful piece. I love the way this flows and the oscillation between thoughts. Congrats on third place in Gabriel's challenge! 🥳
'...when you sit out enough dances People stop asking you' This is my favourite fragment, and a powerful dive into the feeling of being an outsider looking in. Congratulations!
Congrats 👏
Back to day congratulations! And apparently give it the like that didn’t take with my last comment.
Yippee 🥳👏🤗…. Well deserved placing in the challenge 🙃.
I'm so sorry I missed this when you posted it, DK! The loneliness in this fairly shouts! Brilliant, feeling poetry. I felt the hurt in your words. Congrats on making the winning circle! Richly deserved!
I love the message here!
So sad yet has a feel of acceptance. The line about dancing no more is beautiful
Wow. This is a really comforting poem. I needed to read this today. It's important to always have the reminder that there is a way back.
Well-wrought! Melancholy is a perfectly reasonable response to the shifting seasons of life. Perhaps one day we will dance again, or perhaps we will smile at the children who play, and learn to have lighter hearts with less the effort!
Poignant nostalgia saturates this poem.
You're a dancer who doesn't dance anymore, that line was so sad. Loved your poem!
Great Lost-ish poem ✅. I’ve never been to a disco with everyone playing their own music style through headphones… you painted the scene well. Like Cathy, I like the step back in a positive direction 💖.
Yeah I def think that if you turn people down too often they stop asking. This was so damn good. Could really sense the feeling of being lost but desperately wanting to join in. This was fire DK!
Excellent writing, but if I keep reading this dark poetry, I will be compelled to write another smile article.
I like the little but of positivity at the end, like there is hope afterall. This was an excellent entry. Well done.
I felt the lostness in this. It was captured so keenly. It made me want to take the voice of the poen dancing. Come on! Let's go.
The emotion of this comes through so clearly. So many poignant lines, like “sit out enough dances…”. Amazing!
Oh my, DK! This was exceptional. I truly felt as lost and sad as the narrator/you from the joy and the dissonance of the start to the realisation that comes from missing that feeling of being part of something. For some reason, this stood out to me "So you know after fifty Friday nights No one will notice your absence Then in that silence you yearn Just to be a wallflower again" The poem is immaculate and ripe with perfect lines but you just used brevity to the maximum in conveying so much in those short lines. Just, a stunning entry. Well done, pal!