Phantom tango

The beat is faint, the dance slow

so slow I'm not sure we're dancing

my partner is but a shadow

waiting to become more than a phantom.

The disco ball that so blithely

cost shards of light upon my eyes

forecast my partner's arrival

yet I had dared hope he would not follow.

But the beat strengthens

and the dance intensifies

the steps we've danced before

are too familiar and unmitigatedly unwelcome.

We turn and dip, this direction then that

an intimate tango

with each dip, my stomach rebels

the dips so deep my head ricochets off the floor.

He shows me no pity

but dances the dance his sadistic way

and when I am beyond spent, he departs

without so much as a bow at the end.

Migraine is a merciless partner

a relentless partner

a murderess I would gladly become

if only I could slay him.

Teri Robert