A girl gets up at four o’clock
To practice dancing in the dark,
Her father off to stock the store
With all that might be needed

The sun is up and people walk
In little knots of two and three
Across the still beshadowed square
With morning clangs and echoes

And you can smell the baking bread,
Old couples out to taste and see,
As gradually, the day starts up,
The village pulse starts racing

Then schoolbooks are slung over backs,
Then open signs get turned around:
And someone opens one last bill
They cannot see to paying

A village day, a hidden world,
That’s there for anyone to see,
A walk across a sunlit park
And little girls who dance on in

The dark