Trial Marriage

Strangers treat each other
with great circumspection and caution
but we who are engaged,
who undress and become the same person,
always flying into each other —
we don't know where we end.
Are we circular, like the universe?
Do we have a beginning?
We try to find out
by mild coded taunts:
did you park the DeSoto
under the gummy locust pods?
while strangers hurry past
clutching small taped parcels,
glancing at us sideways
with veiled pity; once
they were like us, burning,
with no home except the body.

Copyright © 2007 D Nurkse All rights reserved
from Poetry London
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission