Wedding Night

 

Wedding Night

My wife whimpers,
wakes me in my sleep,
tries to find the mouse
in Goodnight Moon,
the star in I-Spy,
the little engine
in I Think I Could.

His toy train
has left the station,
whistles in memory’s night.
The wooden bridge he once built
with his mom in the backyard,
has crumbled and cracked,
its red paint long since
peeled and disappeared.

For now we’ll just pretend
he and his wife return next month,
they’ll dance and boogie
to Marvin Gaye,
hip and hop and leap
over marbles
on a Chinese checkers board,

jump and cry and play,
by our side.
Maybe, just maybe,
we’ll play I-Spy,
find the star we lost tonight,
between the maps and tubs
and bowling pins of our lives.

Author: Robert Giebisch

Photo: Dan Formsma on Unsplash