the to-be-weds

be it on their way to

strike number two,

having already “failed,”

earning strike number one,

the to-be-weds

defend their upcoming choice

to friends you never cease

to bring up all the things that

can go wrong

that will go wrong &

that already are going wrong---

these slight imperfections,

these obvious sacrifices being

made

for the utopia of

american

cultural

convention,

which died last century,

seems to be a relentless effort

for two people to prove to

themselves

that they have succeeded at

something,

as if success at anything

would provide reason

for their own

chance occurrence

meeting of sperm & egg

somewhere along the line

of evolution---

this time they swear it will

work out

this time they swear that

they will hardly see each

other &

that is the key to

living together in

“holy matrimony,”

pretending

pretending

pretending

that their “god” is not

dead &

if they aren’t that naïve,

that the state of which they

went to get the job done,

is anything less than

one

big

lie,

either.