Three Penny Opera

The elderly modern dance instructor
And his elderly wife are dancing
In top hats and tails, doing a Kurt Weill
Number as old as their marriage.

They’ve reached that age when the body
Is starting to wonder how it got here,
When it has become strange, even to itself
And moves around uncertainly
As if looking for a pair of lost glasses.

They do not mean for what they’re doing
To be a parody, but of course it is;
The word means something like
“To sing alongside,” and it’s just
Possible to see the lithe dark lovers

They used to be, singing just beyond
The penumbra of the spotlight.
When they tap dance, and set
Their old skeletons clattering

Across the stage, the teenage boy
In front of me smiles and nudges his girlfriend
Who has reached the moment
Of her beauty that will keep everyone
On the edge of their seats
For the next two or three years.