Poetry Friday - The Collected Works of Susan Ramsey

This one's especially apropos at the moment. My husband and I officially got "together" on St. Patrick's Day. Mom wrote this poem long before Matt and I married, but my mother-in-law liked it so much that I've always associated it with our own wedding. It's not that far off from what happened at the reception anyway.


Our Third Wedding Reception This Year Hits Its Stride

The floor’s packed, partners optional. They play

“Down on the Corner,” segue into “Shout”;

we jump and hunker, our silk dignity out-

grown and molted. Now it’s “YMCA.”

This homosexual anthem has become

in the heavy hand of some god of irony,

the current wedding classic. The elderly,

the shy -- this dance accommodates everyone,

like a favorite uncle, somehow still unmarried,

who flirts with great aunts, spins the flower girl,

waltzes gently with his fragile mother,

finds car keys, coaxes laughter from the harried

hostess, so the rest of us can clap and twirl

and briefly notice that we love each other.

From New Poems from the Third Coast: An Anthology of Michigan Poets [Wayne State University Press, 2000]