A Pineapple for Me

Perhaps you too saw Lotte Lenya
in Cabaret as Fraulein Schneider
& fell for her.

If you brought me diamonds,
if you brought me pearls

Kurt Weill always said
she was a terrible housekeeper
but a great singer.

By 1950, he was dead
& she was inconsolable.

                                                *

Weill & Lenya had come to New York City in 1935
& she wanted to work, but Gershwin hated
her squeaky voice,

that voice that brought audiences in Weimar
to The Beggar's Opera.

She became resigned to playing cards
with Maxwell Anderson's wife,
her neighbor, in their NY country homes.

                                                *

After Weill died, she married twice, both alcoholics.
She took care of them, saying (in all seriousness):

It's so lovely to be dependent on a man.