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On Marriage

A poem

Jan 26, 2025

The day before our wedding
People told us
It’s the ups and the downs
That make you a couple

But nobody mentioned
That often it’s a string of downs
And then one more
And you can drown in them

And then there’s a small up
We reach for it in unison
And it slips through our fingers like algae

And I watch it sinking
And my hands grasp only water
Until I realise
I need to let it float away

Letting go of the hope
To experience some kind of cadence
There’s no steady tide
Sometimes there’s just ebb and another ebb

And when I come up for air
And our eyes lock
That’s when we know

If we caught the wave.