THE THREAD | The marriage that might have been

THE MARRIAGE THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
 
We could have been perfect for each other all along,
you never leaving half-empty water glasses
on shelves and sills all over the house,
me never coming home with new stacks of books
I swore up and down I’d eventually read.
Both of us sleeping through the night
and never getting on each other’s nerves,
both of us rising daily at dawn to pray,
to exercise, to talk slowly over breakfast.
Me not missing that flight into Heathrow,
you not catching that case of poison ivy.
We could have been perfect, and other events
we could not control would never have happened.
Most days you strumming The Water is Wide,
most days me humming Satisfied Mind,
most days both of us always at home
in these bodies of ours and dancing,
never growing tired of making out
in the parking lot of the Baptist church.
Me always taking the time to find the dustpan,
you always driving with a lid on your coffee.
Both of us daily balancing truth and grace,
honesty and kindness, patience and urgency,
and most days both of us never forgetting
how much around us risked falling apart,
and yet how much held and hung on affection,
and how much still risks, still holds, still hangs.
Most days both of us knowing imperfections
are not the enemy, and even if they are
we can slowly learn to love beyond them.


 

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What I'm reading: Willa Cather's The Professor's House
What I'm listening to: Van Morrison's Moondance, Natalie Hemby's Pins and Needles, Yo-Yo Ma's Six Evolutions
What I'm watching: The Speed Cubers

 

~     ~     ~
 

Peace,

Andrew