All that Is
All beaten broken ruined
The golden bands pawned
The beds miles apart
Under the same roof two
Wary sniffing danger
The mated animals eye
The smoking debris
Left of the wedded life
A wonder now they ever
Used the words husband
Wife
Written March 13, 1996
(desmond)
Thus far, I’ve tried to stay consistent with the way that my father curated the poems for his collection “Poems Unrequited.” And yet, I’ve included this one and will include a few others that weren’t intended to be part of the series. Call it my own curiosity, and for the sake of any readers (be it few!), I figured the rest of the story needed to be explored further to find out the outcome of my mother’s fall into madness in the early months of 1996. Here, my father is referring to pawning off their wedding bands– a pretty normal occurrence. My father only flitted from job to job throughout my childhood, and my mother was mostly on disability. Therefore, trips to the pawn shop were pretty common, especially in a time like this when my father was playing the waiting game, watching over my mother’s illness while raising his three children.
About Desmond and Poems Unrequited.
Copyright © 2013-2023 Mani O'Brien. All rights reserved.
