Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Megan Hall

WEDDING

WEDDING

WEDDING

1
We tell my dad, we’re getting married.
It’s a strange time, of emotion, and emotion denied.

How do we work it out, this strange new life?
Do what is right for us, find our own way
in the maze of expectations?

We find help from unexpected places.

2
No shade, not even a wisp,
but he raises her, my other parent, his dead wife.

In her empty wedding dress, green sash,
my mother makes her empty presence known,
living in our words, quietly.

For this I’ve waited all my life: those missing, those missed.
   
Close

WEDDING

1
We tell my dad, we’re getting married.
It’s a strange time, of emotion, and emotion denied.

How do we work it out, this strange new life?
Do what is right for us, find our own way
in the maze of expectations?

We find help from unexpected places.

2
No shade, not even a wisp,
but he raises her, my other parent, his dead wife.

In her empty wedding dress, green sash,
my mother makes her empty presence known,
living in our words, quietly.

For this I’ve waited all my life: those missing, those missed.
   

WEDDING

Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Ludo Pieters Gastschrijver Fonds
Lira fonds
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère