Dance

Three singer performing a frottola, an Italian song popular c. 1500 by Lorenzo Costa

We have come far from love's beginning—
The days we danced to Gypsy tunes
On violin and flute,
When new wine flowed,
And we were young.
It was sweetness then,
All wild delight,
All passion flowing red
Like wine we drank,
Like our red blood.

Our colors run to amber now.
Our hair is intermixed with gray.
We are far past the middle of the day.
We take our wine, still sweet, in sips.
We like the hotter spice, the bitter herbs.
Our child who once was babe is now a man.

We have looked ahead
And seen a door
That we are told leads to a brighter room,
Where sweetest music plays eternally,
Where violins and timbrels sing,
And old, tired hearts and limbs take wing
To soar on drafts of music
Toward an ever-growing light.
Meanwhile, we dance
Our Gypsy jigs more slow,
And look ahead in failing light.

Copyright 2006 by M. David Orr