Weekly Poem: 'At the Counters Ball'

**By John Taggart** Last dance a waltz jazzed up slowed down out of time real easy is in three played free and so all the time in the world last dance for the counters it's the last dance at the counters ball a waltz for the counters who've spent all their time counting what's lost like things like favorite things not things like time after the ball is over back in their counting houses the counters will be counting what's lost and all the counters are laughing because I asked Emily "do I repeat myself" and she said "but very well" and they're dancing because they've lost count and don't care and because it's the last dance and I'm dancing laughing and dancing with the oh so divine Miss Emily D.     John Taggart was born in Perry, Iowa, on October 5, 1942. He is the author of 14 volumes of poetry. From 1969 to 2001, he taught in the English Department and directed the Interdisciplinary Arts Program at Shippensburg University. He has received a number of awards for his teaching and writing, among others the Commonwealth Award for Academic Service, the Chicago Review poetry prize and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. He lives in the Cumberland Valley of south-central Pennsylvania. Taggart's new book of poems, "Is Music," will be published in October "by Copper Canyon Press":http://www.coppercanyonpress.org/catalog/index.cfm?action=displayBook&book_ID=1445.