Wedding Poem
for Jan and Angela

by Lyn Coffin

A first-time mother, you awake in
the middle of midnight, ease out of
bed, and travel down a dark hall, spied
in on by an eavesdropping moon. You push wide
the one door you never close completely,
and walk across a luminous blue
carpet, as if walking on water. You stand,
looking down… And this, forever, will be
the familiar face love wears—the face of
a small boy, sleeping on his back… Under
his lids, his eyes move back and forth, like
people pacing behind shades fringed in gentian.
His arms and legs are a just-stopped whirlwind
of crooks and crosses. His mouth, trembling slightly,
betrays a flower’s open wonder.
You pull up the blankets and think, "Son, I
loved you first in my mind, then,
in my belly; then, in my arms. When I look
at you, I know my heart’s extension
and its terms. There are no guarantees,
so I offer this hope—an ordinary
dream come freshly true. May you meet a woman—
an angel, but more affectionate. May you
yearn to be, and learn to be friends. May love,
freely given, for the rest of your life,
have and hold you together-- husband and wife.
A final great blessing, in the wake of those:
may you one night push wide a door you don’t close,
may you cross a rug as though walking water,
to safe-keep the sleep of your son or daughter.
As for making wish-lists, may you wait to begin
till you’ve pulled up their covers, and tucked your world in.

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