Because The Spinning of The Earth Demanded It

I traveled East

from where I had previously traveled West

and as I made it through the thicket,

I met a company of dancers.

They twirled like the rain falls

and their feet shuffled like the tide.

They claimed they weren't angels,

or sirens, or spirits.

They said they danced

because the spinning of the earth demanded it.

They begged me to join them,

but I said i didn't know how.

So they directed me towards their fire

and said the licks of flame held the lessons.

With the dancers' urgings

I plunged my hand deep inside

and burned like a forgotten secret.

As my clothes fell away in ashes

I tried to join the dancers.

They denied me entry

and explained that I had not burned enough.

My legs hadn't learned how to bend like a storm

and my arms were unlike the moon.

I walked away cursing the willows around me,

upset that my ancestors had not been dancers.

That's when I found a company of singers

who sang like a rising mountain

and harmonized like the prairies.

Their song told me

that my forerunners had indeed been dancers

and that I would be too,

when I discovered the meaning

of a path across the world.