Marriage and Other Leaps of Faith

by Guest Contributor Jeanie Greensfelder

To Toast Or Not To Toast

I'm making toast.
Do you want some? he asks.

I look up and say, Hmm…
I had a late lunch. I'm not sure…

My husband shakes his head.
He throws his hands up—
It's not a declaration of war,
it's just a piece of toast.
He stalks off.

He returns and says, I'm sorry.
I forgot how your brain works.
I ask a question and you answer:
Well…it's March, but it's Friday.
Is it raining? Let me think…

I look up and say,

Yes, I'd love a piece of toast.


Thoughts on Thoughts

One cold day, drying myself after a shower,
I notice my husband's towel hung over a heating vent.
If anything ever happens to him, I think,
I'll get the warm towel bar.

When I tell him my thought, he laughs and says,
I haven't pictured your demise since yesterday
when you ate the last chocolate.

"To Toast or Not to Toast" and "Thoughts on Thoughts" from Marriage and Other Leaps of Faith © 2015 Jeanie Greensfelder. Reprinted with permission.

Jeanie Greensfelder is the author of Marriage and Other Leaps of Faith. A psychologist and poet, she lives with her husband of 41 years in San Luis Obispo, California

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Poetry Bad, Love Good

I found this among my late father's papers. It's a poem he wrote to my mother while they were dating. He was a college student at the time.

When I behold the blueness of your eyes,
Or hear the melody of your sweet voice,
My life to be complete, I realize,
Depends upon me as your final choice.

Reasons to Love

Sonnet XIV from Sonnets From the Portuguese
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
first published in 1850

If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say
'I love her for her smile - her look - her way
Of speaking gently, - for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day' -
For these things in themselves, Beloved, may
Be changed, or change for thee, - and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry, -
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
Bot love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.

Portraits of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning by Thomas B. Read (1822-1872)

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Getting Married

Contract

How can I promise a forever I don't own?
How can I give a self I don't know?
(Standing here in my best wedding dress
clutching a rose.)

How can I offer a love I can't define?
How can I promise a life that may not last?
(Standing here peering forward.)

I take your hand
And give you the rose...

From Things That Melt, by Rosemary West
©2008. All rights reserved.