Your Wedding Day Poem by Hal Caufield

It rained all day,
As if Heaven knew
The pain in my heart.
I am sorry.
I took no delight in
Rain on your day.
I prayed for sun.

I thought I would
Lose myself in some mindless routine
And escape any pain
Associated with the day.
But all I could think of
Were Pablo Neruda’s verses:
“Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
Write, for example, 'The night is filled with stars
and they shiver blue in the distance.'”
“Another's. She shall be another's. As before my kisses,
Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.”
And as I softly spoke these words
To myself,
My welcomed solitude was shattered.
I was asked - what are you saying?
I could not answer.
So I had to deny
Even the utterance
Of such heart wrenching words.

I tried to drink.
But, I did not.
I could not bring myself
To wash away the thoughts
Of you, even if they were torment.
Instead, I cried.
Not a bawling outburst,
But those tears the well up in
The eyes and brim over the lashes.
And worst of all, I could not,
Of course, explain why I cried.
So, I pitifully denied my own heart’s tears.