Poem: "Like Nobody's Watching"

This poem came out of the June 19, 2012 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by janetmiles and sponsored by the general fund.  You can read more about Irish, Norwegian, and Swedish folk dances, the cláirseach, and the nyckelharpa online.  This poem belongs to the series Hart's Farm, and you can find the other poems via the Serial Poetry page.

There was always music at Hart's Farm,
someone singing or playing in the background.
Then about once a week, they held an actual dance.
Now every village had its own variations of the folk dances,
but Auduna had never seen anything quite like this before.

She recognized some of the steps,
and some of the music, and then it got strange.
There was something like a polska
but with four dancers instead of two
and not dancing in place but moving.
The young men performed a halling
but there was something about the way
they picked up their feet that looked different.
The ring dance used a side step that Auduna
felt certain would break her ankles if she tried it.

She loved the music, though,
Soren with quick fingers on the fiddle
and Leif playing a nyckelharpa
with its complicated keys and bow.
Aisling sat on a bench plucking the wire-strung harp
that she called a cláirseach,
bright sweet notes falling from her hands.

Auduna tapped her foot as she listened.
"Would you like to dance?" Bergren invited.
"No, thank you," she said.
Arnvid asked her next, and she declined again.
Then she had to turn down Lia and Inge,
who thought she might prefer a female partner.

Arnvid's daughter Astrid asked,
"Don't you like dancing?"
"Yes, but I don't know the steps," Auduna said.
"Oh, there are all kinds," Astrid said.
"There are Swedish and Norwegian ones,
and lots of Irish, and I think some from England too."

"I certainly can't keep up with that,"
Auduna said.  She stared at the tangle of dancers.
"So pretend," Astrid said,
tugging insistently on Auduna's hand.

"What am I supposed to pretend?"
Auduna said as Astrid dragged her onto the floor.
"Pretend like nobody's watching,"
Astrid said.  "Just do what the music does,
and you'll have fun."

The music was laughing itself silly,
Auduna thought.  She had Astrid on one hand
and Bjarni on the other.  To be sure,
the children weren't trying
to do any of the fancy steps.
They were just bouncing around
more or less in time to the chiming notes.

Auduna quit trying to make sense of the steps
and simply made something up.
The song took her by the hand
and twirled her across the floor.

Astrid was right.
This was much  more fun.