Your mother-in-law is late tonight / and the club is quite empty / except for the laughter of two / high-heeled young women / who have trouble standing straight tonight / though for what they lack in poise or tact tonight / they make up for in wild applause / This is the noise of love / in its childing way / The stage’s red velvet hangs loose / above tapping feet / A new couple enters in shadows / between songs / they are stooping / laughing to themselves / because they’re too tall for this joint / (everyone is) / and the glass clink of drinks / moving up and down / side to side / table to table / mouth to mouth / is low tonight / and the music doesn’t yell tonight / it swings and sways / like this grey pair and their cross-armed grandson / in the brown booth seats / in the lowly light / of the bar tonight / who sit near the front / because Grandma’s sight / isn’t what it was / And though, tonight, she has to squint / in the dark of the eve / she likes to watch the faces / of the six slouching boys on stage / as they play a gentle and stirring tune / of saxes and drums and guitars too / that make her dream the moment off / or wish that the warm basement / had a window / with a clear view of the moon / as she remembers / decades’ worth of love-filled Junes