unsolicited advice

so young, so promising, so fancy-free, so appealing, so thoughtful --consider carefully the steps you take in your life

 

caution, dear young hearts,

unless you are among those rare creatures

who believe in true love,

take care, be prudent, shy from

the long commitment,

that bondage,

the oath that will tie you

to another

til death do you part.

some consider an oath a trivial thing,

merely words to forget

and cast aside when strife strides in.

but  …  an oath is an oath.

a promise is a promise.

so this is my lot:

ill-matched, irritable, isolated,

bound to a soul so unlike me

that I am made mute

by that calamitous knowledge.