Yawp

I’ve just arrived and I already feel so

Out of place here

Everyone else dressed disco style,

While I’m here with an old suit that

Makes me look like a lawyer

Maybe I’ll sue

The school

Or my friends

For making me come here

//

It’s so loud that I can’t see

And so dark that I can’t hear

What’s going on around me?

Wait, I think

I see some of my friends

About time, I

Was honestly about to panic

//

It’s been a while and I still haven’t started

Dancing to my

Heart’s content

My heart’s not content

I want to

Dance but

It’s so terrifying

How do they do it so easily

//

It’s been two hours and at most I’ve been tap dancing

All around the floor, frantically looking

In the dark for courage

Where everyone keeps telling me to

Just dance

As if it’s that easy for me

To throw myself out there

Yawp

What’s that supposed to mean

Yawp

I sound like a barbarian

Saying that out loud

But maybe it’s exactly what I need

To be a barbarian

That doesn’t notice the crowd and

Does whatever he wants

//

So I stampede over to

Where my friends are at

Just outside their circle of

Their little shimmies

And I kick

Into it

Knowing full well that someone may be watching

//

And they are

Watching me as I thought and danced

About how amazing

This was

To be a barbarian

Who doesn’t care about anyone else

I didn’t see anyone else

The improvisation carried me away

In the middle of the ring around me

Of people who have never seen me

Dance or anything like that

But I kept going at it

I wish someone would’ve told me beforehand that people would cheer for me.