Dancers in the Dark

A Poem by Aura Inanna

Find the courage to fight for what you believe in, and although you may at first fail you will impact the world.

Beneath the covered bridge,

Spilled into the park,

All the fairy lights in town

Gave their eyes a spark.

Dark ‘til dawn, their escapades,

Vaulting the bridge’s arc

They can’t seem to care tonight

Dancers in the dark.

Dark ‘til dawn, their escapades,

Flares alit by renegades

Shouting in the darkness grew

Streets became their barricades.

Their cause a day with light,

Their cause a noble right,

Their cause a freedom fight,

They can’t seem to care tonight

Dancers in the dark.

Freedom right in front of them,

Repression at their backs,

Civil war between the two,

Is this the proper track?

Their flares answered in shot;

Their bodies drop to rot.

Lights of better later,

Their cause no one forgot

Dancers in the dark.

They took their guns in hand;

They fought for freer land

Dreaming of their future grand

While ending others’ there.

Leaving history’s mark,

They rushed the army nearing

Hundreds just disappearing,

Into gun and smoke

The army domineering,

Struck by fearing spark.

They couldn’t save their cause,

Running through the dark.

Freedom right in front of them,

Repression at their backs,

Civil war divides the two,

Is this the proper track?

Their flares answered in shot;

But death this war has wrought

All revolution stopped

Run from the death and dead,

Their cause no one forgot,

What would become of them,

Dying in the dark?

Is their courage glory?

O what a charming story!

War from dancer’s spark.

Despite the fighting gory,

Let thoughts be laudatory

For those dancing in the dark!

© 2014 Aura Inanna

Author's Note

A poem a wrote for AP Modern European History, based on the rhyme scheme of "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Tennyson. I think it came out like I was writing about the French Revolution, just because I was thinking about history, but I don't think that's what I intended. Any thoughts?