Beginning Ballet over Forty

I think yes, I have it. The pas de valse is slow

but winning. And then she wants a pirouette

in the mix and, in the room, I'm the tornado,

dizzy and feeling like I've been caught

stumbling in my underwear, a dipsomaniac

on the sprung-wood floor. I know she won't

believe me when I say it was fine at home—

there, I have about as much room to practise

as a mouse i…