The Divorce Poem by Sheena Blackhall

Nobody cheered, blew kisses, threw bouquets
There was no feasting, no celebratory sighs
No church rang with blessings, no prayers rose
To heaven, like chiming, footloose butterflies

Friends, kinsmen, passers-by
Did not stop and applaud our un-wedding
When we, the bride and groom, with scars of erosion between us
Agreed to divorce, walk off from the past, goods, bedding

Quietly papers shifted in a distant lawyer's office
Unknotting the ties that bind
The gold ring tarnished
The love match left behind

The smashed remains of wedlock
Children, stunned like broken crockery
Mourned uncomforted
The death of each little certainty

Meanwhile, the matrimonial hungers
Continued to grow unabated
Like unfed lions padding around the loins
Kept lingering on, unsated and unmated