Never ignore the footnotes

opening the dresser drawer
the old bride lifts out the box of bewilderment,
she sits cross legg'd on the dingy neglect'd carpet
and open'd the scrap book
once known as her wedding album

as she held it to her hollow chest,
she fought off stinging  heartbeats,
she thought long and hard about the deception,
and where her head was at when
his head was workin' her once forbidden box like she was
an all-you-can-eat delicatessen,
a one-night-stand-get-a baby-free. . .

gift wrap not included

. . . . the embarrassment for the family
would be too much for mama to take,
she said 'I Do" when he had intentions to keep doing
everybody else, in spite of recalling his vow to God
and the cloud of sight-seeing witnesses who show'd up
just to see if the beauty shop rumors were true .

she flipp'd from vinyl protect'd page after page,
only to conclude an ending that she thought was
rewritable;  and as for the promises. . .

hers was the handwriting of sincerity
etch'd on an ivory dream "til' death";
and his? . . . an orchestrat'd forgery
with invisible ink from the devil's pen,
regretting unborn innocence sold away.

© 2006 cynth'ya lewis reed
all rights reserv'd