All in All

Curtains gently twitch, eyes watch, lips sneer.
Our favourite morning spectacle takes place.
Much better than the soaps these newly weds.
So passionate and conning not their covert gallery.
With desolate leave-taking common entertainment.
“They’ll soon get over that. Give them a month or two,”
We tell each other knowingly.

But our derisive sniffs and snide remarks
Mask real regret for that sweet interval
When we ourselves saw heaven in another’s eyes
And craved no sup but from another’s lips.
Believing our’s the love that poets laud.
To last not months or years but for all time.
True happy-ever-aftering seemed ours.

That all-concealing raiment when rubbed thin,
Abraided by those cares of daily life,
Money, in-laws, children underfoot,
Showed underpinnings of unwelcome truths.
Illusions slain, a pallid love remained,
Habit, inertia, duty, social pressure,
An adequate but disenchanted bond.

We claim the blithe euphoria ephemeral,
So smug we are, and being very blind
A great love passes by quite unremarked.
An ancient couple on their daily stroll,
Hand clasping withered hand, eyes meeting eyes,
Soft smiles, each hanging on the other’s words.
All in all—complete—while time remains.