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.