Polly’s Rhythmic Writhing Dance - TOOLS TOOLS

Polly writes in circles three words five words seven cross one out add two lose one turn bare feet on the paper ink between her toes violet smoke behind her everywhere she goes tab of paper on her tongue Sunshine Daydreams Polly counts not numbers spaces one two one two three one two one two three four five wait where's four? Polly laughs left foot eleven right foot thirteen hips seven head five hands seventeen STOP one go Polly writes the missing beat then writhes where it should have been paper floor paper floor pen heel pen heel three three two three two three two three three three wrong perfect again Polly's got a little sun painted on her eyelids moon beneath her tongue flowers growing from the margins sentences undone she writes LOVE on beat one FAITH somewhere after nine HOME between the measures then forgets where she put time five seven eleven no fuck it writhe Polly bends the bar line until the bar line bends her back twists six through seventeen folds thirteen in half one-two-three-four-five one-two one-two-three one turn the drummer drops a number Polly catches it puts it in her hair keeps writhing twenty-three over seven seven under five four pretending to be nine nine with one leg missing thirteen inside eleven Polly inside Polly writing inside writhing writhing inside time she says the beat is only a suggestion then slips between it barely barely lands one the room tilts two-three-four-five-six-seven the room tilts back one-two-three nothing one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten-eleven-twelve-thirteen nothing one Polly smiles there you are guitar cuts across the floor bass crawls underneath drums build little staircases with missing steps Polly climbs them up sideways down through she writes a sentence backward reads it forward tears it into pieces throws them in the air every word lands on a different beat I WAS NEVER HERE AT THE SAME TIME nineteen five twenty-three STOP Polly wait Polly doesn't she twists through nineteen falls laughing into four stays there half a measure then writhes beneath the floor seven seven seven eight seven seven ten seven where the fuck did nine go? Polly has it between her teeth spits it into the bass line nine eleven thirteen five one turn tab of paper on her tongue Sunshine Daydreams melting numbers one by one now the words are moving without her letters leave the page verbs begin to twist nouns refuse to stay through beneath between around Polly bends through every one ink spirals upward smoke falls down Polly wears the rhythm like a crooked flower crown five against four seven against six eleven against eight thirteen against everything hands in five feet in seven hips in eleven spine in thirteen voice in seventeen bass in nineteen drums refuse to cooperate guitar counts something else Polly keeps writhing Polly keeps writing one word per collision touch turn fracture bloom coil fall rise miss land miss LAND silence Polly freezes pen suspended body twisted heel above the floor every instrument waiting waiting waiting one she lands everything explodes seventeen-sixteenths nineteen-sixteenths thirteen-eight five-four seven-sixteen twenty-three-sixteen change change change change don't count count don't count COUNT Polly's laughing through the numbers hair spinning through the lights writhing little fractured circles writing through impossible strikes one line takes eleven one twist takes three next line starts in seven next turn breaks at five her spine slips through seventeen and somehow somehow finds one she writes TIME IS NOT A CAGE then cages it draws four walls adds a fifth removes the floor writhe writhe writhe Polly writhe until five becomes familiar until seven feels square until thirteen feels like breathing until nineteen feels like skin until twenty-three feels like falling then change it twenty-three one eleven two seventeen three twenty-nine nothing nothing Polly? bare feet still moving spine still folding pen still scratching no measure no count no downbeat only motion only language only Polly writing what she writhes writhing what she writes dancing between both the band trying desperately to follow almost almost almost Polly rolls through seven arches through eleven twists through thirteen falls through seventeen gets up in nineteen laughs in twenty-three comes back on one then for one impossible beautiful accidental measure her hands her feet her spine her pen the bass the drums the guitar the voice everyone lands together one tab of paper on her tongue Sunshine Daydreams Polly smiles writhes through the silence crosses out the sun twists the page and starts again.