Front Porch Review
A literary magazine for the young at heart and mind

The blink, the dart, the rolling of my eyes,
I’m dancing to Mick Jagger with my eyes.
My bedroom is the forest, dancing alone.
I don’t need a partner, music is enough
to pony with rocking eyes, feel the love.
Pine trees sway and shimmy with me to drums
My legs inert can’t move, but I’m dancing
in the moonlight, with exploding stars.
ALS cannot stop my dancing eyes.
The frogs hop and bop, the crickets screech the beat.
I become a tiger leaping branch to branch.
My stripes breathe in and out to the thunder.
On distant planets, flashing lights blaze bright.
The trembling air blasts and swirls with music.
I’m dancing with my eyes. Kaleidoscope
Swings round. The blink, the leap, rolling to the beat.
I’m dancing with Mick Jagger. Satisfied!
ALS can’t stop my joy of dancing eyes.

By Catherine G. Wolf

Catherine G. Wolf studied language development in graduate school, and was fascinated by this unique human ability. In 1997, when she was stricken with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, her ability to speak was taken away by this disease. She found poetry had a special capability to express her innermost feelings. By losing her physical voice, Catherine found her poetic voice. She always enjoyed dancing, and now dances with her eyes. Catherine has eleven published or to be published poems, including five in the 2016 Rat’s Ass Review edition of Love & Ensuing Madness, one to be published in October 2016 in Front Porch Review   and one in the 2015 spring issue of the Bellevue Literary Review. She writes blogs and articles about living with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Now Catherine uses assistive technology to communicate, and raises her right eyebrow to type. She is studying poetry at the writerstudio.com.. Her email address: