...Old Dancing Shoes

You lie there belying your age black and shiny Patent smooth, untreated soles smoothed With thrice of a thousand steps, You never let me down gripped With candle wax for sure footsteps, Cracks line your skin we have grown old together. I’m sure I saw you shuffle softly in answer as I speak. Remember on a laid floor in front of the steps Of Sydney’s beautiful Opera House The quick 1 2 3 of a Straus’s Viennese waltz Struck up, my wife’s stunning white and mauve flowing gown Trimmed with soft ostrich feathers glistened in the Warm Australian sun, What a magic feeling dancing together as one and With shoes that fit like a glove You never let me down. Your finest hour came, laces ‘an all My God at that wonderful venue Canberra’s great hall of Parliament house, A very nice venue indeed for competition. The magnificent floor laid from only Australian trees Except the ebony...Papua New Guinea’s gift Five lines of twelve sixty in all, in turn Took to the floor, Shiny shoe you glided along to a Sinatra foxtrot, You did your best and stood at the heels Of the winner on the podium, Old soft shoes You never let me down.