Marlene Dietrich

Under soft lights

With a taped-back face

Our soft-spoken queen

Takes her place on the stage

As the big curtains open

The last troops run in quick

For the one and only

Marlene Dietrich

She whispers demurely

"From 'The Blue Angel'"

The song we all know

The one that we've paid for

Fills the hall tight

And pulls at our hearts

And puts in her place

The girl she once was

In that suit of '33

Soundtracked by disapproving commentary

And my, my shuddering neighbour

Turns and roughly rouses me

He says, "While a kiss on the lips

May not make a frog a prince

An orgasm renders any queen a witch:

Metamorphosis exists!"

Damn all us idiots

Damn us till death

Relentlessly trying to untie our knots

Of rivers and roads that defy all sense

But her hands loosen all

And her voice brings you youth

Her cheeks cradle the holy breath

That pumps the lungs of her Mackie Messer

And she beats the heart of her Mackie Messer

And she walks the stage with her Mackie Messer

And she makes us smile with her Mackie Messer