Divorce Poem by Jeffrey Obomeghie

Our marriage was a wounded animal that we dragged around for years
and tried to resuscitate with guilt and tears
unaware that the creature was dead
unaware that the rot filling our head
was from the carcass
felled by our fracas

Time can play a cruel and mocking game
On two people with a talent for assigning blame
who cannot breach the rampart
on the electrified water that drives them apart
so we yell from our moats indecipherably
setting fire to our boats inconsolably

And when we are done lying to ourselves about what happened
and done lying to our children about why it happened
and finally done with the perjury
and the injury
we crawl to our hiding spaces
a little smaller than we once were, a little less sure of our places

It is not the pain that kills us
not the guilt not the agony of alone dinners, and the frosty pillows
not the unkind word or love's shallows
What kills us is the knowledge that it may have been better
if we had only been less bitter
The knowledge that turning the page will not end the chapter
and that our carefully nursed rage won't make things easier
What kills us is the knowledge that the act of saying "I do"
was no more than a walk to the zoo.