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The book The House of the World has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and is now available on Amazon.

Jamie and Steve on Their Wedding Day

Are we alone?
Do we hear the thoughts
that course through our hearts,
remembering the girl
who has become the bride,
the boy who sees the smile
of his sacred love?

Where does it say in the program
who these children are,
how carefully they’ve been loved,
how many dreams lead up to this altar
that shines like dawn before us?

Her mother calls out silently to her.
Does anyone hear me shouting?
How I want her to go on and come back,
how nothing matters
but her happiness to me,
how glorious she looks,
my child from heaven,
how the doors of its city opened
and gave you to me.

How I wave,
does anyone see me wave
as you become sunlight
and stars in my soul,
my daughter who was
and is, the flower in the meadow,
the angel of the playground,
the pride of my flesh,
the jewel that is a gift.

And the father sees his little one
go off down a road
that is now hers alone,
remembering songs he hummed,
games they played together,
bride of a new future
that is hers alone.

Boy who takes Jamie for his bride,
boy who listened to the songs of his mother
when she held his small body to her,
and now sees a man,
whose heart is a part of her own.

And the father who sees his son,
tall, joining with his bride
a new destiny forged by love,
holding fate in the cup of his heart
with names that will be written
on the pages of life.

So much is here,
so much is happening inside this church,
this ceremony,
these walls that resound with music
in the waves of an unfathomable sea,
welcoming Jamie and Steve
and all of us,
changed forever in their bond.

Published inIndex of all Poems