the elimination dance

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a poem by michael ondaatje.

"An elimination dance begins with a crowded dance floor. At a signal, the band stops playing and the announcer reads an elimination... Any dancer answering this description must sit down, and their partner is also disqualified. The process continues until a single couple remains."

ps: this reads in chronological order, and is complete

Those who have resisted depravity


[Notes]

American rock stars who wear Toronto Maple Leaf hockey sweaters


[0 notes]

Those who (while visiting a foreign country) have lost the end of a Q tip in their ear and have been unable to explain their problem


[0 notes]

Gentlemen who have placed a microphone beside a naked woman’s stomach after lunch and later, after slowing down the sound considerably, have sold these noises on the open market as whale songs


[1 note]

All actors and poets who spit on the first row while they perform


[0 notes]

Men who fear to use an electric lawn-mower feeling they could drowse and be dragged off into it by a swimming pool


[0 notes]

Men who shave off beards in stages, pausing to take photographs


[0 notes]

Any dinner guest who has consumed the host’s missing contact lens along with the dessert


[0 notes]

Any person who has had the following dream. You are in a subway station of a major city. At the far end you see a coffee machine. You put in two coins. The Holy Grail drops down. Then blood pours into the chalice


[0 notes]

Any person who has lost a urine sample in the mail


[0 notes]

All those belle-lettrists who feel that should have been ‘an urine sample’


[Notes]

Anyone who has had to step into an elevator with all of the Irish Rovers


[0 notes]

Those who have filled in a bilingual and confidential pig survey from Statistics Canada. (Une enquête sur les porcs, strictement confidentielle)


[0 notes]

Those who have written to the age old brotherhood of Rosicrucians for a free copy of their book ‘The Mastery of Life’ in order to release the inner consciousness and to experience (in the privacy of the home) momentary flights of the soul


[0 notes]

Those who have accidentally stapled themselves


[Notes]