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He Was Dead When I Married Him
He was dead when I married him (An Elegy)
I met a woman along life’s way, divorced, alone, and this is what she had to say:
He was dead when I married him, having died long before I met him; a glossy shine deceiving my shallow eyes. I dragged his well-preserved carcass to the altar on the winds of foolish hope and optimism.
Once the honeymoon had waned and the cold light of day dawned on our circumstances,
I found that I had awakened in the cemetery of Forgotten Dreams and Abandoned Hopes. Indeed, hope had brought us here, in what was a carriage by night, a hearse by day.
There he lay beside me, still as the grave in which we lay, content to do nothing to unearth his potential; revive his aspirations.
I dug and clawed furiously at the box in which we lay, but he, dead weight ensconced silently beside me, wished aloud only for the silence of our impending doom.
Eventually, I saw daybreak beyond, through the portal of effort. But he, refusing to rise, asked only that I stay and sleep the sweet peace of oblivion.
So, I arose alone, shaking off my grave clothes and now I walk the Path, The Breath, my only company.
I shivered and stared as she made her choices clear; to be unwed or to live as though dead.
I wished her well but turned aside, taking the unkempt trails of Love and Hope instead.
Dixie Ann Black (DAB)
