Marriage is Not a Sometimes Thing

Marriage is not a sometimes thing.
Married is married, twenty-four seven.
There are no time-outs when it’s hell,
and no do-overs when it’s heaven.

It can’t stopped once it’s begun,
laws and lawyers notwithstanding.
It’s not a frolic or a club,
that cuts all ties by just disbanding.

It’s not a job that you can quit,
or a vacation never-ending.
It’s storm and sunshine all along,
that teaches us the art of bending.

It teaches too the art of swaying,
the dance we do in clement weather,
till when you move, you move as one,
you learn to stand and bend together.

You start with what’s already known,
but all the rest is constant learning
the need for two to be as one
is at the bottom of all yearning.

Marriage is an end and start
a circle route that once set spinning
will lead you to its furthest point
and show all ending is beginning.

So joined is not to be undone,
one life, two halves that cleave and cling,
the process of becoming one
makes marrying an always thing.

©WILLIAM JOHN WATKINS