well...the salmon was good

Weddings:
wheeling and dealing with the bride( the bride’s family the bride’s friends thebride’sthegroom’sthebride’s)
in attendance to watch the attendants attend with sycophantic bows.
Floating through as I do, knowing no one and known by none--"Oh, you’re one of his sisters? I hadn’t realized”--
just a body in a seat.

Weddings are a rite of passage into the world of smirking adulthood
my smile plastered on with a paint roller
I wonder if the others can just make out the peeling corners
and jagged un-matching seams.

probably not.
they brush past without a second backward swipe of their
paintbrush eyes.

Weddings
an exercise in forcing others to your will,

says the anonymous attendee in row five, 

filling in the lines of my mask with pleasant forbearance,
forgiving much--“you’re going like that? Wearing that?”--

in the hope that death will come soon, anticipating release and
waiting for the alcohol to take affect"but no, remembering that I am at a dry wedding drinking
sparkling cider.

so the mask turns to one of horror
of glazed eyes no amount of rock candy from the candy bar can alleviate.
Found a near-empty wine bottle in the basement of the church and exulted
and drank the dregs in a few gulps, jealous that the bridal party had such a benefit I was bereft of"hoping to curl up
and forget my useless self,

to return home with diminished identity and the realization that
I wasn’t strong enough.

not this time.
In order to survive a wedding.

Reviews

[SHEEMA HUQ]

this is a refreshing cutting edge angle on the whole wedding experience, it almost reads like an effort to counter your own biases at some points. Nice write.

[zainul]

Very nice poem on wedding which is losing proper importance in some areas due to changing attitude.
But you have emphasized nicely that wedding is still a lovely rite as in the following verse:
"Weddings are a rite of passage into the world of smirking adulthood"
Enjoyed reading.

[Dr. Wood ?]

very good... Weddings are looked upon through many eyes....Some wear spectacles and some do not....some should though