Isaac Richards 🔈

Amusing that time is perception
for you two, a flash of light
for me, eternity
hours of waiting my turn for
photographs in a sauna of suit
and direct sunlight and sweating
hours staring at an empty gazebo
waiting with the groom
but too cool in the evening
too cool for ice cream at least
the type of cool that gets the gents
handing their suit coats to the ladies
in sleeveless dresses huddling around
the tiki torches underneath bistro lights
some of our last and only rituals
but there is some lost anticipation
of what they’re in for that night
now that it often happens early
before all the ceremony
bees pollinating a metaphor –
shade swooning them to sleep
among white roses and a curry buffet
of donuts hung up on pegs
the slow motion slideshows
of childhood ski masks
national parks
and relatives who pinch each other’s bums
grumbling we raise our glasses
to the in-law drama already
playing out
as the day ends
with an arch of sparklers
and when either one of them
wants to leave the other
I hope that blizzard
of white flower petals
will keep them indoors
at least until spring
warms their brittle stems.