To Have And To Hold

Oh, how we danced on the night we were wed;
shy, self-aware, uncomfortable with the gaudy
display so unlike what we would have wanted
for ourselves, a deeply private ceremony, but
cultural expectations, the faces familiar and
strange, made this a very public and exposed
event. Anxious to be ourselves, not merely
what others saw in us, a generic heritage
display of tribal procreative imperative.

We vowed our true love, though a word was
not said; We had much earlier exhausted our
need to reassure one another, long since pledged
ourselves, so eager to assume our new lives
of ardently driven proximity; no distance of
place, thought, purpose separating us in our
yearning to be as one with each other toward
the enduring prospect of the eternity of our lives.

A word was not said, there were stars in the sky,
except for the few that were there in your eyes;
Not stars, but a stellar constellation of potential
as tenderness and care embellished the occasion
persuading me that I was as cherished as you were.
Not stars, but reflections, as we looked deep within
the pools of our eyes to drink deeply of the vision
we each recognized irrevocably and finally as one.

Dear, as I held you so close in my arms, the angels
were singing a hymn to your charms; Were we so
angelic at eighteen years of existence, precociously
seeing in one another at fourteen, our futures
awaiting in reaching eagerly, instinctively toward
each other ... resulting in the closely-guarded
conspiracy that bid us wait out four years before
our companionship, need and assured destiny
would finally become our reality in marriage?

Two hearts gently beating and murmuring low,
my darling, I love you so! And so, my darling,
over the years it has been thus; our hearts beating
gently beside one another as we shared over a
half-century of life, exploring our world and one
another, ourselves creating the miracle of new
lives, and sharing the privilege of celebrating them
as well. This, our inheritance as man and woman.