Volume > Issue > Epithalamion

Epithalamion

A POEM

By William Dunn | October 1985

As puny astronauts set out,

Sheathed in their metal skin,

Exploring vastnesses without,

So do a man and his new wife begin

Their darksome journey round about

The galaxies within.

 

We’re told of two becoming one

And so of sharing pain

That one will feel what was begun

As the other’s loss or private gain:

But who will think it’s quickly done

Or easy to maintain?

 

Yet mysteries await the pair

As near the speed of light

They circumnavigate the air —

Miraculous, rejuvenating flight

That brings them younger back to where

They wait the coming night.

 

Who can resolve this mystery

Or sleight-of-hand divine

Where quicker than the body’s eye

Two tangled, self-propelling hearts align

Themselves and thus renewing fly

In a clean, straight line?

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