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Track 1) The Rat Shall Dance

from My Life as a Dancing Rat by Jonathan Rome

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lyrics

When you’re the “new guy” at Chuck E. Cheese,
You spend your first few weeks up front, at Kid Check.
There, you stand and stamp
The hands of strangers.
You offer smiles and a polite, energetic
“Hi! Welcome to Chuck E. Cheese,
May I stamp your left arm please?!”

As you stand still, only leaving your podium to clean the greasy smudges of hands from the glass doors,
Children are running around you; screaming, crying, and wanting to be entertained by flashing lights.
Parents are Ignoring the fact that we’re teaching your kids how to gamble and abate certain situations,
You’re standing there,
stamping and listening to the same 10 songs play on a repeated playlist.
Employees pass by assuring you that your job gets more exciting as you transfer to the section you were hired for.
They say “Kid Check is the worst job. It’s so slow! It’s so boring!”
I completely disagree.

I’ve shaken hands and complimented the shirts of countless strangers, each with their own, unique story.
Their unspoken lives fascinate me.
For instance, I saw a man with so much ink it was hard to tell whether he was a man at all,
but his heart was clear.
Before the managers confiscated the bowie knife
hanging from his pocket,
I saw him huddle with his two daughters and wife.
I saw the way they leaned on each other for support, transferring energy into the hearts of those touching them.
I heard him whisper, “I’ve made so many mistakes in my life, but you three make me feel like I’ve been a saint.”
And amongst the heavy breathing from his family, as if they’ve heard this 100 times, but every time it hits them,
He says, “I love you for that.”

People ask me if I enjoy my job.
Despite my ears ringing from the volume,
My legs hurting from dancing so much,
And my shoes smelling like acid and digested food coming back up,
I tell them it’s the best job I could have at this age.
Because I get to bring interactive joy to people.
It’s not enough to hand a 10 year old an iPhone.
If playgrounds are to be replaced with arcades and a dancing rat,
Then the rat shall dance.
If this is the only way for parents to define the word “intervolutions” to their kids,
Then the rat shall dance.

I’ve seen through the eyes of the dancing rat.
I’ve felt his emotions, and they’ve never been anything less than positive.
I’ve been pushed by his motivation which is to only ever make kids smile and look fly while doing it,
For that, the rat shall dance.
For the children who linger on their hugs while parents snap pictures on their camera phones.
For the adults that just want to see their kids happy, because it’s been awhile since they were reminded that emotion even existed..
For the one that gathered his family into his arms and reminded them that they make him feel like “wrong” is not a word in his vocabulary.
For the little ones that aren’t scared of a 5 foot tall mammal, representative of a creature they were told not to go near,
The rat shall dance!

For the children who get a whistle at the prize booth, only a whistle.
And when they're parents ask “Is that it?”
They happily chug, in response, they're new favorite toy.
And their parents say “I wish I was this happy with just a whistle.”
They’re the children that can’t understand what “Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover” means, because they’re limited minds don’t allow them to know the word “judge” yet.
They live off of seeing strange things because nothing can be explained exactly one way.
They’re able to look at everything through different lenses, different angles.
They find beauty in the unsymmetrical.
That makes them smarter than any of us.
Because they’ll ask, “is the sky slanted or is the world just this beautiful?”
And, honestly, that’s more daring a question than I’ve ever heard from the lips of the conformed,
Those that followed the rules like breadcrumbs leading to their imminent doom;
To die without having lived in their own skins.
For them, the rat shall dance.

For the curious eyed,
The kind hearted,
And the creative minded.
For those with scars branded as reassuring marks that they’ve taken risks.
For those with unspoken stories, peering through tinted windows, hoping to find inspiration.
For the girl in my Chemistry class that thinks I’m writing poems about her.
For the woman that birthed me once and now advises people not to be me.
For the 8 year old scared to sleep in the dark because of a video game.
For the coworker that was crying at the wedding because she’s losing custody of her Pearl.
For anyone aching,
With hearts breaking.
For people making
Minimum wage guiding people through aisles when they didn’t ask for help.
For the entrepreneurs with their names scribbled on bathroom stalls, worrying about their legacy,
And the christian girl praying that even though she lost her virginity to some guy she barely understood, she’d like to know if heaven was still a possibility.
For the stars shining bright, working overtime to stop us from replacing them with artificial light.
For the make believers
And the dreamers
And the commenters.
For the people riding comets,
For the streakers.
For the untold geniuses,
For the unborn fetuses.
For the homeless guys,
The bloodshot eyes,
The hair straight up, they’re electrified.
For the dads and the brothers,
For the sisters and the mothers
For those who look at their feet swinging inches above the ground thinking, “I’ll never grow up.”
Good! Don’t!
You can do anything you want, and if you want to be a 5 year old in a 30 year old body, viewing the world through lenses and angles, believing that everything is beautiful if you look at it the right way,
Then you be that person, for you!
The world is your sandbox, so make a castle.
For the kings and queens of the unsymmetrical,
And for the loser sitting in Starbucks, typing poems about his job, drinking berry tea until his refills are up.

I feel offended when people ask me why I love my job,
Because I do.
And if you ask why, I hope you have time to hear the story of the dancing rat.
Because it ends with,
For me...
For them…
And for you...
The rat shall dance.

credits

from My Life as a Dancing Rat, released November 11, 2016

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about

Johnny Rome Salinas, California

Poet, FIlmmaker, Author, Editor, Actor, Screen/Play writer, and Dancing Rat... If I can do anything being alive for 16 years, you can too.

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