The Last Waltz

Alden Nowlan

The orchestra playing
the last waltz
at three o'clock
in the morning
in the Knights of Pythias Hall
in Harland, New Brunswick,
Canada, North America,
world, solar system,
centre of the universe—

and all of us drunk,
swaying together
to the music of rum
and a sad clarinet:

comrades all,
each with his beloved.