What is Marriage

Is it a shared bed
with an extra quilt for you
and a cracked open window for me

A walk under an autumn sky
to discuss the upcoming election
as leaves curl brown?

Is it make-up embraces
after a fight about nine dollar crackers
over bowls of split pea soup

Is it less kind
than we thought it would be?
Are we less gentle,
through it all our edges not yet filed, razed down
performance ready

Are we less able to hide—
your pursuit when I say fine twice
your invitation for me to show you
my crawly swamp of anxieties,
my scaling stones

And in return
you pulling back the curtain
on your unfinished heart

Every night
we choose to reach toward
for it is far more forgiving
than we thought, love—
the way it holds you
and doesn’t let go.

Text: Fran Westwood