The 5 Senses of Marriage

Sewing Hearts on Sleeves by Courtney Gonzales-Jayne is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.


Today, standing at the altar-

May you always see each other the way you do today

May you always have each other's hand to hold

May you always hear the love in the other's voice

And,

May you always find a home in the other's soul.

Today, standing at the altar-

Know nothing but joy.

(and "today" will never end)



(10-22-09)

Paper plates or the good china?

Circuitous denials
and pedantic epiphanies
can only be spread so thin,
much like the last bit a low-cal margarine from the tub…
Sure, it gets the job done, but does it really transform that burnt piece of toast?

Self righteous orations
and home-schooled rhetoric-
mere scrapings and crumbs
can never really nourish anybody
even a mound of cotton candy is really just air…
Of course it tastes good, but what exactly did you swallow?

Direct dialogue
and truthful admissions
are a bit like meat and potatoes,
Integrity is a leafy green…

Set the table and pour the wine.




(February 12)

REM

Lateness has caught up again, as it does
Quiet allows for too much thought
Even so-
the wind will blow, the blinds will twitch

When was the last time he saw her?
How does the chorus go
to that song
that sticks in her head…?
Where did I say I would be
by this time of year?
Evading the solitude of a crowded sleep
and keeping rhythm with the blinded windows

The clock in the foyer chimes
It's almost time to wake up again
Or wake up, at least.
We’re all still trying catch ourselves





(January 21st)

1000

Two figures are posed, smiling
They suspect one another
But a flashbulb goes
And they are captured forever
As “friends”

Two figures embrace, nervous
They need each other
Then a flashbulb goes
And they are captured together
As “lovers”

Two figures ……..Click.

(one more memory to take reality’s place)

Stare into the lens and lie.






(January 13th)

Fathoms

They were just learning to tread water
A pair of brothers, looking toward a father
Who let himself get lost in the tides, giving in…


So two little boys are left wading
In a sea of grief they can't know to feel
And yet no one can tell them
“How”

They will have to learn how to swim on their own
Develop a new way of breathing
Pull each other to shore
And all they want to hear is
“I love you”

So two little boys are left standing
In shoes they know not how to fill
And all that anyone can say is
“I’m sorry”

But sympathies do not fill shoes
Nor holes in hearts
They cannot salvage the lost
Or answer the questions they will have as Men
that He was supposed to answer


A pair of sons, left to keep treading, looking, remembering—wondering.





12-25-08 3:01 am

Merry Christmas, my darling one

Winter Snow… drifts and sways
Turning me into the child I so longed to be.

Winter Snow…sculpts and forms
Shaping imprints of your love for me.

Winter Snow…quiets and eases
Holding each other in awed hush
As ice dances silently

Winter Snow…reflects and refracts
Lighting what we can’t always see.


Two become the Forest and the Trees
If only for a moment…

Let it fall on us, let it fall, and thus,
It will always be-
Our Winter Snow.





12-18-08 at 5:23 am

Cursed, are the Children?

Selfish and indulgent are the young,
Complaining of life’s slings and arrows
That were disguised as love and boundaries

Hardened by the labors they saw
And resented.

Wearied by the privilege of innocence
Angered by the future of culpability
Drowning in the wealth of untapped resource

Youth isn’t wasted on the young
It’s carried.
A cross to bear.


“Oh, to be old and powerless,” sigh the children
For heavy is the head that begins life anew.







10-6-08 at 12:34pm