Somewhere in Kansas
a first grade teacher
dances naked
to a CD she bought
at WalMart
for ninety-nine cents
Pictures of Jesus
smile kindly
from heirloom frames
on her double dresser
Report cards,
notes to parents
about their children’s disabilities
scatter on the quilt
Great Aunt Sarah sewed
a hundred years ago
Someone must have told her
more than once,
Janet Ann, always
tuck your dress between your knees
They never reckoned
what itched and swarmed inside
would send her off to faraway towns
on Saturday nights
to dance slow in the blue lights
of highway bars with a stranger
in a cowboy hat who wrapped her head
into his smoky vest,
just to hear him softly sing into her ear,
“Our love’s a gonna grow,
oo-wah, oo-wah…..”