Marriage on Sale

this afternoon
the love of my life
my dear wife
walked up to me
as i bled by the typewriter
sculpting words into a manuscript

she was happy
her best friend was getting married
she was jealous
her best friend shone in the pride of a solitaire

i had never gifted her one
if only solitaires breathed poetry


my wife and her complaints of an unromantic me
drowned in the deafening noises of a dingy traffic
the sharp-tongued whiskey had taken over the slit perceptions
the skin smelt of a pungent truth



selling faces like they could be sold off a grocery store
the men come and the men go
the women come and the women go
at the lengths of scattered dreams and measured lives
the desire to belong is a commodity
the thing called love, a consumable

it's like a big stinking fish market
the people, the choices, the prices
the fish, the fishmonger, the clientele
we all take turns in the circus
the Government approves of the flesh trade on paper
the society agrees on crumpled petals and wrinkled bedsheets

man and wife is a flourishing enterprise

when did it all change
from the idea of love
to a catalogue of perks and perils
from the idea of marriage
to a journal of ifs and buts
when did it all change


ideas are beautiful
but
ideas are beautiful when they remain ideas
free as the lone kite against the titian skies

we've lost the fragrance of habits in the overtures of a perceived romance

lives weighed in yesterdays of regret
marriages wrecked in terms and conditions
and yet we scream our lungs out every day
lamenting not having found an unconditional love


i wish we had learnt to love
i wish we will learn to love

i wish we learn to marry in love someday

walking away would never be an option again