“Emma Marries for the First Time at 54” by John Grey

It’s part dream, part afterthought.

All those years, Cupid’s arrows 

landed wide of the mark, 

struck her friends instead.

And now, at last, one thumps into

her glutenous maximus.

It’s as much time to get moving

as “love has found me at last.”

The guy’s no looker but he’s kind.

He has three grownup children   

and a wife who, according to his 

sporadic moments of confession, 

was the least possible version of a life-mate.

Sure, he drives a truck 

but he picks up and delivers locally. 

And she still works in the lawyers’ office.

The partners would be lost without her.

It’s an October wedding. 

She always associates herself with Fall:

colors in the bloom of their fading,

a persistent chill to the warm.

His company won’t delay winter.

But it’ll change the direction it’s coming from.


John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Sheepshead Review, Stand, Poetry Salzburg Review and Red Weather. Latest books, “Covert” “Memory Outside The Head” and “Guest Of Myself” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in the McNeese Review, Rathalla Review and Open Ceilings.

Photo by Marko Blažević on Unsplash

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