In this poem I look at that summer when I started both my teenage years and moved up to from the safety of primary school to the adventures and turbulence of what would become my high school years. This was the time when my crushes on my would be celebrity boyfriends became slightly less pure and a lot more lustful and my taste in boys changed from blushing at the cute boy next door to wanting the bad lad down the street. To mark that change I’ve given the title Dancing To Different Songs I hope you enjoy the read.
Dancing To Different Songs
As I started the big school
The Bay City Rollers were replacing the Osmonds
in many teenage hearts including mine
I was beginning to watch the Waltons
I was 13 a trans teen
in a Glasgow housing scheme
dreaming of boys
I wished I could get the part of John Boy’s Girlfriend
have our hearts entwined forever
until the twelfth of never
In that mythical land
where family values and apple pie meant love and safety
from the big bad world outside
It was a place I could hide
for 50 minutes each Monday
though for the rest of the week
I wanted a bad boy to show me
he had the moves I needed to learn
to keep on dancing
I yearned for him
his name was Les
the poster boy for nice girls
who wanted to be naughty sometimes
It was time to say goodnight John Boy
as I longed to get the gladrags on
for my summer love sensation
I was the good girl
who dreamed of being bad
but was too prim and proper
to do anything about it
except replace the posters in my scrapbooks
as I began dancing to different songs
knowing I had outgrown my puppy love
© Gayle Smith 2019
Skirtingroundmylife 