It started in silence
A gentle reverberation
Not even felt
Some of the children started giggling first
But they were always in motion anyway
The first to notice was probably Roberta Flower
Old and still
Locked in her chair
I can't imagine her ignoring the flow of motion through her body
But she was alone when it happened
So it can't be confirmed

Those who did notice
Didn't think anything of it
Just thought it was a good day
And laughed as they shook their bodies in the kitchen
Clicking heels among the eggshells
I had been walking to the store when I felt a skip in my step
It made the sun shine a bit brighter
By the time I arrived I was swinging
Shaking
Pulsating
Vibrating
The walls inside seemed alive
Mr. Rick took me by the hand 
And we jived in the dairy section
The milks and cheeses cheering us on from under glass

There was no epicenter
No spread from one place to another
Everyone was hit completely and all at once
Rhythm exploding out every front door
Every household alive with kinematics
Fathers
Sisters
Sons
Mothers
Couples disintegrating under brooding silence
Suddenly found each others' hands and feet and lips and eyes

In the town square strangers exchanged moves
Wilder and wilder
Faster and faster
A growing desire to explore the capacity of our bodies in motion
Everything buzzing with electric touch
Congos twining between houses and cars
Cars left abandoned
Now platforms for the brave
Grinding away atop reflective steel in the hot sun
They were some of the first to go

There was no melody
No sensible beat to be followed
Some had turned their radios on and up
But none were on the same station
And some from carelessness had been bumped
Now spitting only gargles and hiss
Mingling with cacophony of note and genre

This was when things were at their most elated
The first twenty four hours
There was a feeling that something had been broken into
That we had cracked open and were right in the centre of something
There wasn't much talking in general
But when there was it was much in that vein
Excitement and brilliance
We were gods and kings
We were the sun and moon
We were one with everything
And it felt supernatural

When the first started to drop
We thought nothing of it
Their bodies trembling in the dirt
A new move perhaps?
An entire new style!
We weren't there to judge
We were there to celebrate
It was when stillness set in that we started to worry
Motionless in the dust
And we
Helpless inside our gyrations
Began to remember things like water and sleep
But no action could be made
Twisting and burning
A frozen anxiety set into our faces
Counterpointed by our flailing limbs and rumps
That conceded only to the seizing of our frames

From then on it became a different game
One of outlasting
Overcoming
Dismantling the bomb
Without a set of tools or knowledge of the wiring
From a distance there was no difference between the ecstatic and the desperate
Both phases identical
Save for the growing list of casualties

Those expected to last longest did
There were no surprises
Those naturally born dancers
And those who had trained nights in our lone club
Won
Their reward now was a floor of skin
Friends and neighbours
I am thankful I never made it that far

One hundred and thirteen hours and it was over
Like a plague or disease
A poison
An army's tactical orders
Annihilation
Something in the drinking water
And maybe that's what it was after all
Something in the drinking water