Piet Mondrian Does the Foxtrot by Susana H. Case

Piet Mondrian Does the Foxtrot

It might seem inconsistent, this ascetic, celibate man
having a ball on the dance floors of 1920s Paris,
where he isn’t a stranger to the Charleston
or the foxtrot. But I feel the rhythm of the foxtrot
in my work, he says. A man obsessed with order
and grids could enjoy such a dance, its musical
geometry, as he maneuvers around a room
like one of his paintings unfolding. Mondrian loves

jazz rhythms—the foxtrot the first dance to use them—
and though initially that seems surprising, jazz
is not only freedom, but has structure too, musicians
returning to a lattice of chords, even as they improvise
within that framework. See him now, a wiry man,

as he enters the blank canvas of the floor
in round wire-rimmed glasses, his crisp white suit
without a splotch of paint. He’s desired
as a partner for his meticulous style, his joyful
expression. With every step he makes a line,
his movements formal, precise—like his brushstrokes.

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Susana H. Case is the author of nine books of poetry, most recently, If This Isn’t Love, Broadstone Books (2023), and co-editor with Margo Taft Stever of I Wanna Be Loved by You: Poems on Marilyn Monroe, Milk & Cake Press (2022), Honorable Mention for the Eric Hoffer Book Award as well as Finalist for several awards. She won the Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Competition in 2002 for The Scottish Café, which was re-released in English/Polish as Kawiarnia Szkocka (Opole University Press, 2010) and in English/Ukrainian as Шотландська Кав’ярня (Slapering Hol Press, 2024).