Street Dance …

The street was charged with the movement of a

gale force wind …

…..

People watching on the sidewalks or

on canvas chairs

seemed powerless to resist

the energy of the dancing

mass …

…..

As the mob of dancers grew

it reached critical mass,

broke apart and became

separate layers of a powerful

storm …

…..

Adult dancers formed the larger wind streams …

…..

Children flowed around the

larger currents of movement …

small eddies within the storm …

more powerful because of their

compressed energy …  little tornados within the

swirling mass of

movement …

…..

Four women with dyed black hair wearing

black leather vests with rhinestones,

high top cowboy boots,

black stockings with torn holes exposing their legs,

black t-shirts cut into strips at the bottom

and

tight black leather skirts …

dragged on cigarettes …

…..

They exhaled smoke from the side of their mouths or

turned their heads and blew …

…..

One of the women turned away from

the others, bent over

and began coughing

violently …

…..

Her mouth formed the shape of an O …

her tongue rested on her lower lip in the shape of a U …

her face turned beet red …

…..

while she hacked and barked

and hawked

the other three laughed and

pointed at her …

…..

She began coughing into her hand

wrapped into a fist while

moving her head up and down

as if in agreement …

  continued …