Landscape with Bride
Before an unintended war, she tends
to details: is the church ready
where are the rings? The floating
homunculus curls into its body
abstract for her; and the man
dressed in rented white? Not ready
for war or domestic trouble
his dim fears that women unsex men
Things that cost money worry him
yet there’s some saving with the old:
her grandmother’s pearls, his
great-grandfather’s ring, its worn gold
and stamped dates—how did it survive
its centuries? As war works closer
to their lives the groom’s restless
nagged by green in the hills
of a late Northern spring She greets him
under her mother’s apple tree in bloom
She is clear to him. He wants only
to make her happy. Yes, her joy
will address his doubt he will feel
comforted pleased this is what he wants
He looks up through rings
of shadowed green sees tree limbs
crossed like scissors
his hand moves to hers gloved white
(from Ploughshares & Heavenly Bodies, Jacaranda Press)
