Requiem for a Marriage
Divorces are common post-Katrina – but this one is messier – it involved friendships and trust and broken hearts and love’s labor lost.
Eternity was in our lips and yes,
Bliss in our brows bent
………………………Shakespeare’s Antony & Cleopatra
Steve was the Antony to my Cleopatra, but he befriended a snake who used his charms to wound the whole lot of us as tight as possible and when havoc was sufficently wrecked across all lives, the snake slithered away.
Today at 11:45 Steve and Rachel’s divorce was final. Hope is the hardest love we carry.
Whatyagonnado?
*******
Hope and Love
All winter
the blue heron
slept among the horses.
I do not know
the custom of herons,
do not know
if the solitary habit
is their way,
or if he listened for
some missing one
not knowing even
that was what he did
in the blowing
sounds in the dark.
I know that
hope is the hardest
love we carry.
He slept
with his long neck
folded, like a letter
put away.
~ Jane Hirschfield ~
(The Lives of the Heart, 1997)
July 27th, 2006 at 9:04 am
Honey, reading your post-mortem, or whatever it is, reminded me of the language of finality that one sees on divorce papers–phrases like ‘dissolved forever,” you know, or whatever the fuck they say. I cried for an hour, I think, when I got mine and Pia’s and read those words, and that was a sucky marriage, unlike yours and Steve’s and not nearly as long to boot. I’m sad for you today and am thinking about you. In one sense, fuckitalltohell! But in another, you’re in Nantucket, ya’ll had some wonderful years together, and there are bright days to come; they’ll just be spent with someone else.
July 27th, 2006 at 9:40 am
I’m sorry you’re going through such painful times. I was there 5 years ago after my 20+ year marriage ended. But I’m here to tell you to keep moving forward because it does get better. (((hugs)))
August 3rd, 2006 at 5:15 am
Thanks – up until recently it has felt like moving forward was like going through whirling blades and fire, but must admit it is getting better everyday. Good luck.