The Divorce

Nobody cheered, blew kisses, threw bouquets There was no feasting, no celebratory sighs No church rang with blessings, no prayers rose To heaven, like chiming, footloose butterflies Friends, kinsmen, passers-by Did not stop and applaud our un-wedding When we, the bride and groom, with scars of erosion between us Agreed to divorce, walk off from the past, goods, bedding Quietly papers shifted in a distant lawyer's office Unknotting the ties that bind The gold ring tarnished The love match left behind The smashed remains of wedlock Children, stunned like broken crockery Mourned uncomforted The death of each little certainty Meanwhile, the matrimonial hungers Continued to grow unabated Like unfed lions padding around the loins Kept lingering on, unsated and unmated