Marriage as Creative Process

Let's marry again this time as metaphor:
I'll be the idea of love and you can be
                the curtains, breathing.
Allow me this: every day is a proposal,
an acceptance.
          Marriage is a reckless aperture,
the sudden floods and fades of light.
       No, you can be the idea of love
and I will be
       the curtains, breathing.
A moment can halt us, turn us round.
We can lose our bearings in the dim kitchen
worn from our own bare feet.
       There is no idea of love,
only the curtains breathing.
But we're smart
                to be so doggedly messy,
leaving our hearts everywhere.
I reach for an apple and it begins
          to click, to beat.

Copyright © 2002 Julianna Baggott All rights reserved
from The Southeast Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission