marriage

it isn't romance, it's an institution

there is a picture
of us
from years before

the promises
were just beginning,
small glints inside
the pupils that
color our eyes

the smiles then,
a belief in a faith that
fleeting moments
carried the seeds of
eternity

a touch was wondrous
in its power to create
a yearning for
always

but
after the "i do's"
compelled us forevermore
we didn't smile as much

and the touch now
merely a meek apology
as we brush past
one another
in the hallway

the pupils
now shaded by
avoidance
offer no bright promises
for tomorrow

and so
we're left with a
sad hopefulness that
maybe, just maybe
the memories
will make it all
worthwhile

Reviews

[Fabian G. Franklin]

I guess it's what two can make it...

[LadyKarissa]

Marriage is hard. I can say that much. Going through three of them, and now a widow the only marriage that would have worked for me was with my late beloved second husband, Roy, he died in 2008. I miss him very much. Lucie

[manchilld99]

A basic truth: many relationships ascend toward the altar, then stumble across the threshold, descending into timidity and complacency. They leave the striving or the earliest days as the high points, yearned for in later enhanced memories. Your poem illustrates the stark contrast by juxtaposing what was begun and what then only lingered. Nice work.

[Emily B]

and sadder still, when one doesn't see the shadows

[...]

. oh, you said it ... and brilliantly at that ... this is something i think about all the time ... (i haven't been married but most of what you say applies to my one and only significant former other and me) ... i wonder if "memories" was what it was about ... and i'm precisely where you're at ... thinking in the realm of that "maybe" ...