Oh Well, That's Marriage

So, I don't normally post too many poems, but this one is special. I read it last week at my book reading for Chicken Soup for the Soul. I am quite sure that many married people can relate to this as the people I have read this to seem to....

Happy Hump Day!

Oh Well, That's Marriage 


A ring. A thing. We said I do.
I was scared, but so were you.
We loved determined and then awoke...
To find that paper is no joke.

Oh well, that’s marriage.

You were angry. I refrained.
We both pretended not be drained.
It’s a thing of beauty:
Our love and duty.

I stayed. You stayed.
We deserve a parade.
Then I saw you again,
There was the love we had back then.

Oh yes, that’s marriage.

I want you gone. You hate me so.
Why then, cannot we not just go?
I draw your breath; you complete my soul
God dammit, guess we’re two halves of a whole.

Oh hell, that’s marriage.

Had we not braved this land,
A loving couple hand in hand,
With iron resolve and an awfully warm bed,
Instead, it’s possible we might have said,

Oh well, fuck this marriage.

But as it stands, we’re both still here
And though our love is a little bit queer,
I am still committed, and I know why
It’s there each time I look in your eyes...

Oh well, that’s marriage.

It is perhaps the question that puzzles me best
When others put your love to the test...
They want to know your lovely secret
And if I knew it I wouldn’t keep it.

Marriage, I tell them, is a most strange thing
It’s much more than papers, it’s way beyond rings.
I haven’t a clue what’s kept mine together
It’s stiff as a board, it’s light as a feather.

It’s fragile. It’s strong.
I keep doing things wrong.
I can’t seem to find a good reason to go
The love that we share is all that I know.

And all I can say about my marriage today--
Other than that love has carried the way--
Is that I’ve been lucky and awfully involved
And also I’m told that we are bound by the law.

Oh well, that’s marriage.