ROCK AND ROLL  

I watched you dancing down a hallway.
I saw you. You let that song get to you all the way.
You didn’t care if anyone saw you there.
It was your own freedom that was in the air
As you were dancing with joy in the sound,
Joy in the sound that your own body found.
And as you rolled and you rocked and you rolled,
     I saw a story unfold:
’Bout how you roll, roll, roll.  Roll, roll, roll …
    Until you roll as far as you can go.
The story says that you will roll so far. 
The story says that’s just the way you are.

I watched you tiptoe through a minefield.
I saw you. Each step a dangerous and unkind rotten deal
But you were still gonna make your move.
You’ve always got something real to prove.
With your feet down in the mirey clay
You kept a-rolling and you found your way.
And as you rolled and you rocked and you rolled, 
    The story was being told:
’Bout how you roll, roll, roll.  Roll, roll, roll …
    Until you roll as far as you can go.
The story says that you will roll so far. 
The story says that’s just the way you are.

    You’ll just roll and rock the way you do
    And no one rocks or rolls like you
    The way the poets talk of soul:
    The way you can just roll and roll and roll …

I watched you walk a lonely road.
I saw you. You had to carry that big full load
But you’ve always found moves to make.
Go and make ’em, for goodness sake.
I’ll watch you’ll dance right through it all
Like you did once in that hall.
I’ll watch you roll and rock and roll, as the story’s getting told
And you just roll, roll, roll.  Roll, roll, roll …
Until you roll as far as you can go.
I knew that you would roll so far. 
The story says that’s the way you are.
This part of the story is true: no one rocks and rolls the way you do.

©Dan Goldensohn