Reminiscences of My Wedding Day

What do I remember of my wedding day?
The following things but not with precision:
the taxi driver who had lost the way
forced to make an impromptu decision.

Scratching his head he took off his cap,
then, nonchalantly, he parked by the kerb
and from his pocket fished out a map.
I think that we were in a London suburb.

My best man, who thought he knew best,
was who’d suggested the car conveyance.
The waiting put my resolve to the test:
should the wedding be kept in abeyance?

Yet I was certain that no other option
was open to me but to tie the knot.
That it wouldn’t do to exercise caution
was the best counsel that I  ever got.

I recall too the three-tier wedding cake
that I’d failed to notice the night before;
the hour was late and I wasn’t awake
or I was overwhelmed by too much awe.

My knees were knocking, I was in the lurch
and that was after my best man and I
went to the pub before entering the church
to get Dutch courage, I cannot tell a lie.

I came a cropper when the time came
to pronounce the words ‘solemnly declare’.
I fluffed the line to my eternal shame
but, as I was inebriated, I did not care.

Fifty years have gone, doesn’t time fly?
We haven’t regretted the step we took;
we are still together, it’s easy to see why,
she’s a good cook; I’ve the chequebook.

© Luigi Pagano 2016