Follow the Fleet (1936) Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance in this homage to the U. S. Navy, singing music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. Lucille Ball and Betty Grable appear in supporting roles, in an Art Deco set designed by Carrol Clark. “Id Rather Lead a Band” showcases Astaire’s theatrical ability to tap off and around the beat. “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” culminates the Rogers-Astaire plot in one spectacular routine.
From room to room I go
Do not bend or I’ll never get up
Do not kneel not even for grace
From room to room
Contemplating
What was I looking for
Some thread
Loosened from the fabric
Of the will
Picking at crumbs
Rubble in the rug
Too hard to vacuum
Too hard to stand and iron
Or bake a meatloaf in the oven
Or chocolate chip cookies
How to roam from room to room
How to shift
The weight foot to foot
On crutches how to balance
How to pay someone to clean the gutters
Or unscrew a light bulb
Without a ladder or a neighbor
How to read a chapter without falling asleep
Or forgetting what day of the week
What month it is and calling
In a panic
I came in here for a reason I forget
It takes too much out of me
I do it in stages
Knead the dough then take a nap
Slowly so as not to splatter the orange juice
Slowly so as not to upset the hornet’s nest
Drift in the buzz of a room full of monologues
Identity rippling out from the lily pond
Wishing to be becoming all the time
Never identified — a stalk
Bundled up in multiple pullovers
There’s no end to feeling cold
No longer hard to play deaf and blind
Every once in a while I catch myself
Talking to the dead they’re such comfort
Now that they’re dead
Who grew up with me moved away
And took all solace with them
Knowing me better than myself
Ruffling the drapes finally a breeze
To break the heat
Marrow mends the broken bones
Whom not to call I’m making a list
Where I left that screwdriver
I’m making a list to conserve energy
Room to room what’s to be done
In this room there’s a bed to be made
No end to the war on dust
In this room there are books to be shelved
Shelves to be cleaned books to be read
In this room there are books to be written
In this room everything I owned
Has been miniaturized into a snail
Into a thimble on the hump of sand
And planted in a pot on the widow sill
To see what will grow continues to grow
Continues to surprise us all
It’s for the surprises that I try at all
That I make an effort
Surprises so small so inconsequential
They make up for the pain they dazzle
Small bursts of wonder
Some helium some water balloons
Dr Mike
{2010]
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