A Wedding On The Beach Poem by Louise Tredoux

Brooding today, cannot believe what
transpired last night, thought the curse
of the latent aggression bubbling in a
warped mind would never touch me in
public; never provoked it deliberately;
I felt safe because of my trick to hide
behind a mask when father’s around

Hate doing practical things affording him
the chance to belittle me - prefer doing
nothing, reading a book, living in my mind
so he cannot criticize; hiding my thoughts
and theories; then to be caught in this way,
dishonoured in front of Rudi, now he knows
how awful his father-in-law to be

Read about bad genes and marrying into a
family means the in-laws will be part of life,
thought Rudi would leave once he saw my
father acting in an insulting, humiliating way;
but Rudi laughed at my theory; said he is not
marrying my family, my father can never be
part of our life, not even for a day

I may chose a perfect wedding, I want to
marry on the beach, a dress in peach, walk
barefoot in sand, he’ll have to roll up his pants,
a pastor - a makeshift canopy; a swimsuit
underneath, diving into the waves after the
ceremony, a barbecue on the beach
Rudi was surprised – then agreed

What a splendid idea, splendiferous, magnificent,
magnificento, marvelous, he loved my scheme
for a wedding on the beach…