​Ebony and Ivory 
for Margaret Patrick and Ruth Eisenberg


Side by side by side by side, I aspire to side by side by side by side. 

Margaret learned to play piano at 8, practicing on a paper keyboard.
She went to a conservatory, accompanied a church choir and The Duke. 

Ruth played the piano at first to please her husband who promised
to do the housework if she would learn using his methods. 

In 1982, each suffered a stroke in New Jersey. 
Ruth was 80, Margaret 69.

Margaret lost much of her speech, could not move her right side,
and wished she were dead. 

Ruth regained some mobility with a walker but could not use her left side,
she who had toured with her husband, offering clinics on piano playing.  

They met at a post-stroke therapy group at a New Jersey senior center.
Program Director Millie McHugh introduced them. 

Margaret, meet Ruth who plays with her left hand.
Ruth, meet Margaret who plays with her right. 

The two women, one black, one white, talked of Chopin,
his Waltz in D-flat major, Op. 64, No. 1. 

The Minute Waltz. 138 measures to be played in one minute
when the pianist is able. They sat side by side on the bench. 

First came gigs at senior center parties. Then hospitals. 
A reporter named them Ebony and Ivory.

The New York Times. CNN. A call from Oprah. 
Chats with Brokaw. An appearance with Liberace. 

Ebony and Ivory – widowed grandmothers
bowed to applause in the pews,

shared a minute’s work neither could do alone,

one bench and two hands, side by side.​