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Fun-Loving

Kate Barss

For Anita

There are too many people 
dancing in the library,
letting their limbs swing
out like scissors -- behind me, a girl 
whispers like television static: 
These fun-loving people
are making me nervous.
And she’s right, I’ve never
felt more threatened 
than that time I rode the bus
and tried to politely ignore
the free-spirited mouth ferociously
²ú±ð±ô³Ù¾±²Ô²µÌýHonky-Tonk Woman next to me, voice
warbling like a broken 
whistle— and it would be so good
to be shameless,
to krump or pump
or tango
like a strobe light 
on top of the circulation 
desk, or, at the very least, 
lift my gaze from the bus-floor
I am pretending to read
and look a fellow performer
in the eye, let him know
I’m honky-tonk too.