“Dancing Towards Bethlehem" 

If there is only enough time in the final 
minutes of the 20th century for one last dance 
I would like to be dancing it slowly with you, 
say, in the ballroom of a seaside hotel. 
My palm would press into the small of your back 

as the past hundred years collapsed into a pile 
of mirrors or buttons or frivolous shoes, 
just as the floor of the 19th century gave way 
and disappeared in a red cloud of brick dust. 

There will be no time to order another drink 
or worry about what was never said, 
not with the orchestra sliding into the sea 
and all our attention devoted to humming 
whatever it was they were playing.


Billy Collins

“Dancing Towards Bethlehem" 

If there is only enough time in the final 
minutes of the 20th century for one last dance 
I would like to be dancing it slowly with you, 
say, in the ballroom of a seaside hotel. 
My palm would press into the small of your back 

as the past hundred years collapsed into a pile 
of mirrors or buttons or frivolous shoes, 
just as the floor of the 19th century gave way 
and disappeared in a red cloud of brick dust. 

There will be no time to order another drink 
or worry about what was never said, 
not with the orchestra sliding into the sea 
and all our attention devoted to humming 
whatever it was they were playing.


Billy Collins