This piece is something I wrote 2 years ago in 2007. Sometimes I keep posts as drafts because I don't like to post them up straightaway. Hope you like it.

Old age and death, it comes upon all of us, it's so far proved too formidable an enemy for modern science. Imagine this, you are 75 years old and you have just been diagnosed with a debilitating disease and you get weaker and weaker each day. You will die soon. The doctors have told you that you will no longer be able to walk anyday now. You're still in shock over the news. One night you attend a wedding of a grandchild and you ask your wife, your faithful companion for the past 50 years, for one final dance.

The band starts playing that same waltz,
The one that we've heard a million times before
The one helped me sweep you off your feet
More times than once; but henceforth no longer
Because it is my final promenade with you

Tomorrow the demons that come are cruel
They come to collect from age what's due
To replace my final steps with frail immobility
Tomorrow I dance no longer with you

I chide myself, and move along,
Out of step and beat, my hearing gone,
Pride no longer holds me still, nor people's stares
For it's not a dance with them that I'll forbear
If tonight I don't dance with you

And though it seems more like a hobble than a shuffle
You always danced better than I did
But for now, let me savour these moments
Not the song, or the band,
But I dance to the beat of your heart,
The rhythm of your laugh,
And so, beat by beat,
Cheek to cheek,
This much I'll do
My final dance with you