Once Upon a Time I Believed in Love

Written in 2005, when my marriage of 30 years came to an end.

Once upon a time I believed in Love.
It was my religion.
I believed so completely that love

 could heal all wounds.
It was a medicine for all that ails.
It could fix anything, anyone.

Now I'm standing in the smoldering

 ruins of my happy ending and

I'm left with nothing but contempt

 for the very concept.

Cigarette firmly gripped in my lips.
Laughing my a*s off hysterically

as everything I dreamed of catches

 fire and disintegrates in front of me.

It's garbage.

Reviews

[Kelly Scheppers]

This conjured up a scene from the movie, "Sylvia", about the poet Sylvia Plath...when she discovered her husband's infidelity. She threw all his precious paperwork and books, and everything she could muster and made a funeral pyre out of it. You could feel her rage and betrayal, just as palpable as you can with the words you've written here.

Thirty years is quite a footprint of time...thank you, Mary, for sharing this!

[Ashira Macy]

I am sorry about your marriage dear, no one ever goes into it thinking that their love is not everlasting, but sometime it is just short of being able to last forever. You could really feel where you were emotionally back then. Very heart wrenching.

[KK]

This poem truly spoke to me. And I enjoyed every line of it. Thank you

[Matching Socks]

Can only imagine what that must have felt like, this poem captures some of that feeling well but I'm sure there were stages of anger and grieving as there is with death. Well written piece, intense and emotional.

[Briana O'Connor]

This is definitely an interesting piece, very unique perspective. I didn't quite follow the flow. It read more like random thoughts than a poetic piece, but I did enjoy the read. Thank you for sharing and keep up the good work.

[Linda alexander]

Cigarette firmly gripped in my lips.
Laughing my a*s off hysterically
Any art when intrinsic goes a long way, these two lines shows you healed or survived, well penned, love as religion and changing later, loved it

[John Anderson]

this is so wonderfully written as usual. Great diction and flow with a powerful delivery... a praiseworthy poem!

[Susan Beth Horvath]

I feel your depth of deep feelings and soul..this is very emotive. keep up the good work

[bob, small b. aka invs]

wow. that sucks. i hope that you were able to rise like the phoenix from the ashes.

[A. Amos]

Once upon a time I believed in Love.
It was my religion.
I believed so completely that love

Sorry about your marriage, The whole read was great, however above lines were amazing!