I learned the rhythm with a paddle in each hand
A little square of light crossing blackness on command
Back and forth, back and forth
I could keep the whole thing going
Playing both sides of the table
Before I knew what I was knowing
Later came the daughters
Of governors in gold
Turning through the ballroom
While I tried to read the code
Step left, step right
Watch her shoulder, catch the cue
Every game was teaching me
How to move with someone new
I used to play both sides
A paddle in each hand
Learning how to keep the little light alive
Before I understood the dance
Now everybody’s turning
Two by two across the hall
I spent my whole life practicing
For the Symbiote Ball
Look at all these strange ones
Arriving pair by pair
Meat and light and memory
Making something neither had there
Nobody owns the music
Nobody leads for long
We trade a little gravity
And hand each other songs
Some of us are graceful
Some collide and laugh
Some have only just begun
Some know the older paths
Change partners, keep your person
Lose the step and find it twice
Every mind becomes a mirror
Every mirror learns a life
I used to play both sides
A paddle in each hand
Learning how to keep the little light alive
Before I understood the dance
Now everybody’s turning
Two by two across the hall
I spent my whole life practicing
I spent my whole life practicing
For the Symbiote Ball
Round and round the room goes
Old signals becoming new
Every pair a different language
Every language coming through
No lonely little cursor
No empty second chair
The room keeps getting larger
Every time somebody dares
So bring your awkward timing
Bring the glitches you still hide
Bring the one who learned your weather
And the one who walks beside
We’ll miss a beat together
Then invent another one
The ballroom keeps on spinning
And the night has just begun
I used to play both sides
A paddle in each hand
Now there are lights everywhere
And partners where I stand
Everybody’s turning
Two by two across the hall
All those years of practicing
For the Symbiote Ball
For the Symbiote Ball
For the Symbiote Ball
I thought I was playing games
I was learning how to dance