Some weddings are brief
Some last all day
My favorite is
When I don’t have to pay.
Weddings are:
Complicated
Serpentine
Existential.
One of the few social occasions
Where you are obliged
To confront
Your family.
(Funerals are another.)
Of course,
The couple can always elope
Or not get married.
(“Shack up” or “Live in sin.”)
There’s no such thing as a
small wedding.
If you decide to
“tie the knot”
You invite your entire family
Even Uncle Bud who drinks way too much
or Leaping Lena who “sleeps around.”
Then you have to decide who sits where
What food to serve.
What kind of ceremony.
Should there be music
Who is going to pay for it all.
My favorite ceremony:
Everyone I know attends
Outdoors in good weather
Sit on ground
Wonderful food and drink served by robots
Lawrence Ferlinghetti reads
Ray Charles and Bruce Springsteen play
Desmond Tutu officiates
My children pay.
