The Announcement (sort of)

Sitting at that old picnic table

.....on the back porch

I was aware

.....Suddenly

That your left hand was

......................oddly hidden

In that same moment

.........No

.............before that moment

I asked

Knowing the

Answer

Seeing the diamond

and you

Sparkling

Before you raised your hand

................from beneath the table

.

.

The First Meeting

the train was arriving,
pushing forward a mass of air
she held her skirt down as
she rushed to the platform.
Ten minutes late after two
years of correspondence,
she scanned the crowd
looking for the man in the
picture she held in her
hand, listened for his voice
that she had heard over the
phone so many times.
There he was, waiting,
smiling at her, in spite
of her tardiness.

.

.

Rochelle and David

in the end, they stood at the altar,
but it sure took a long time to get there.
from the beginning, it didn’t look
too promising, she didn’t even
remember him a week after a
deliciously flirtatious conversation.
hurt, he sulked for several months,
refusing to be friendly to her even
though she lived in the same dorm.
that was effective.
time passed and they grew up a bit
and became the best of friends, too
good of friends to risk more.
through illness, job disappointments,
the fact that he thought New York was
too noisy and expensive, there
weren’t enough reasons to stay
together, in spite of the book she
wrote, 500 reasons why
I love you, for him.
in the end, they stood at the altar,
such an unexpected event after
four years of thinking of each other
and never picking up the phone.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

.

.