Thou didst turn for me my mourning into dancing!
– Psalm 30

When night rolled away the light,
men entered the room to dance.
Nine of them had come for one,
who alone, bereft by chance,
stepping slowly to the front,
set about the mourner’s dance.

Swaying slightly forward, back,
with one unseen he moved,
both of them in harmony
in a mourning-dancing mood.
They with silent, stately steps,
turned together, bowed and moved.

Came at last the final dance,
when the man cried out the verse,
all the others in their turn,
called out reply in chorus.
Rising three times heel to toe,
he ended the closing verse.

Each man left the room alone,
save the one without, with one,
dancing still on their way home,
for their dancing was not done—
never, ever, will it be,
till these two again are one.