Soon After He Married

A video poem set on the poem "Soon After He Married."

soon after he married

He leans back and the memory of his school days abroad returns.
A woman on a scooter with friendly smile pulling over for him,
though stopping up-the-road and waiting as he half-jogged to reach her:
seemingly an English scholar, dressed brightly in a folk costume.
He still can hear her speech defect when she told him she was riding
to “Windther Fallth,”
and see her fling out her hand toward the passing yew trees, exclaiming “Sherwood Foretht.”
She knew he was pining for home, and sang “Oh Canada” in the alto range, though he had not intended to visit Canada, nor had he ever been.
He was born and bred in Jefferson County, named after Thomas Jefferson.
A great-grandfather had been a Thomist, according to family lore.
But he said, diplomatically, yes, he longed to see home. It was just the truth.
And perhaps they would meet. He wondered if her lisp was Canadian,
and why that should make him suddenly blue.

He dumps the cat from his lap and goes into the kitchen
to pour himself a Scotch, because what followed is uncomfortable.
She stopped the bike at a roadside inn.
although newly married at the time, he was excited to be with her:
first on the road, holding her hips, now eating together, as if on a date.
He had been reluctant, but getting married didn’t mean one stopped living, they said.
The menus hadn’t even arrived when she began to talk strangely,
having difficulty forming words. She spit up into her napkin,
then seemed to lose control of her body and tumbled sideways off the chair.
She lay where she fell, on her side, and continued to puke on the carpet.
He wiped her chin with a napkin then pushed it under her cheek
to absorb the flux.
Her eyes were open, staring. He needed to have another napkin,
and without looking up, called for help. He told her it was okay.
The thing was, he felt sure that it would be okay, finally.
His breast swelled with false confidence,
a powerful current of gratitude he felt helpless to refuse.
Even as she lay twitching in her soiled frock,
he kept assuring the shadows gathering round him,
that she would be alright. This was a minor crisis. This was normal.
All would be well.