9.25.2021

and I was frightened

I wonder if she thought she should have changed 
Her mind. Years after, when I was the groom, 
In a Midwestern town far from home, she sent 

A card; she couldn't travel with three small
Babies, another on the way: "Assume
Nothing; remember to give and give and give,

And keep on giving all the time. That's how
It works." And I remembered riding out
In the Maryland night, with her husband

Once, six years after her wedding. He talked. 
His talk was the point of a buried shout:
"Don't ever get married, man. Don't ever

Have kids." I wondered what he must be like
In the house, what they were like together,
And I was frightened for them both."
 
[Richard Bausch {1945- } '6', from 'Barbara', in These Extremes]

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