Joyous family weddings four years in a row now have caused me to reflect about weddings – hence this poem (due to appear in a Poetry Space publication in 2017). All the romance, the flowers, the colour, the smiles, the music: all are just a prelude to the new world on the far side of the door into the wedding ceremony.
Doorway of Dreams
In one over-heated room,
Everything’s been thought of:
Even perfectly matched socks in rows
(For once no holes in toes)
That his brothers and his friends will wear.
All, all are redolent of roses.
The trembling fingers of the groom
Reach for the blushing roses’ sweetness:
The wrapped, enfolded buttonhole.
Deeply breathing, he steadies himself.
While in another room, and up another stair
Where a fan shifts warm air
And voile curtains lift and stir,
A mother weaves bright buttercups—
Ranunculus asiasticus—
Through her daughter’s glossy hair.
The bride is trembling, blushing, too.
She knows she’s found her perfect match.
So, reaching for a rose,
Deeply breathing, she readies herself.
Around both upper rooms music breaks
In waves, foams, creams
In the whorled shells
Of their hushed and listening ears.
The love-song they have chosen swells,
Calls them to the doorway of their dreams.
© words and image Lizzie Ballagher
