A poem for the dancing girls of Glasgow

This poem was written after I listened to the BBC Radio Scotland podcast 'Bible John: Creation of a Serial Killer' (2022), in which journalist Audrey Gillan investigated the late 1960s murders of Patricia Docker, Jemima MacDonald, and Helen Puttock, exploring their lives, the failings of the original investigations and claims of a police cover-up regarding a suspect. I also thought of Lulu.
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In Barrowlands with Big Bands
​
Dust falls silver
from the sprung floors
of Glasgow skies
as sling-backs quickstep
above kirk spires
and three women jive 
cathedral-long nights
in the city 
that never
stops dancing.
Those schoolgirl days 
were forever
in Barrowlands with big bands.
Jemima, Patricia, Helen,
birl two-three and –
Shout! We are dancers.

Angeline King
Published in Ulster University Paperclip Vol. III, 2023.

Image: Emilio Cruz, The Dance, 1962, Smithsonian American Art Museum