MARRIAGE

When you’re married, every poem
can be called “marriage.” According
to Catherine Lacey, “a marriage
continues because it continues.”
Jack Gilbert says, “we can break
through marriage into marriage.”
Even with all the marriages
that have ever happened,
there’s only ever the one you’re in.
A friend once told me marriage
is like a wheelbarrow. I think
he’s like a wheelbarrow: full
of shit. The only thing marriage
is like is marriage. What does that
even mean? Let me ask my wife.

Danny Caine is the author of the poetry collections Continental Breakfast, El Dorado Freddy’s, Flavortown, and Picture Window, as well as the books How to Resist Amazon and Why and How to Protect Bookstores and Why. His poetry has appeared in The Slowdown, LitHub, DIAGRAM, HAD, and Barrelhouse. He’s a co-owner of the Raven Book Store, Publishers Weekly’s 2022 bookstore of the year.