15 January 2013 fiction "Marriage"

            She stares at me with eyes dark as midnight, and I wonder what life has done to her to make her so tired. Her wedding veil is draped messily over her slim shoulders, and her hair is slicked back with what I’m sure is some sort of poisonous substance that has ceased to exist in our twenty-first century life. Her lips are pursed and I wonder if they have ever had a chance to speak of the angst I’m sure she’s felt in her lifetime. That snowflake skin, delicate and yet tough from experience. Her soul crushed and broken, yet somehow, with the strength only faith can believe in, I see the hint of a smile. Her hope for the future, for her children and her children’s children to have a life better than hers. Her hands are crossed in a silent prayer below the frame.

            I plead for her to let me understand her world, because I want to believe that my mind can explore and crash past the constraints of time. Modern society is nothing compared to what this woman has gone through and it’s funny to wonder if it will ever measure up. I breathe in deeply, accepting my own fate while simultaneously wondering whether there will ever be another wedding day like hers.