Take Me Out to the Go-Go

Nikita zips across stage
Trailed by a troop of white-gloved
One-wheelers: Killer Joes,
The 12 & Under Crew
In disguise.

A sixth sense guides him
Beyond darkness. An
Inner voice says when,
Don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop,
I’ll tell you when.

A constellation of funeral homes.
Jumpsuits. Red & white
Ribbons in the sky. The total
Groove, a carnival of roses
Circling the moon.

Mere call & response
Never knocked socks this way,
Lifting nicknames & dates
From the faces of tombstones
And mere call & response never will.

God climbs inside,
Asking for souls—
Something we weren’t taught to share.