POEM
The Marriage
Mark StrandThe wind comes from opposite poles,
traveling slowly.
She turns in the deep air.
He walks in the clouds.
She readies herself,
shakes out her hair,
makes up her eyes,
smiles.
The sun warms her teeth,
the tip of her tongue moistens them.
He brushes the dust from his suit
and straightens his tie.
He smokes.
Soon they will meet.
The wind carries them closer.
They wave.
Closer, closer.
They embrace.
She is making a bed.
He is pulling off his pants.
They marry
and have a child.
The wind carries them off
in different directions.
The wind is strong, he thinks
as he straightens his tie.
I like this wind, she says
as she puts on her dress.
The wind unfolds.
The wind is everything to them.
Mark Strand, “The Marriage” from Selected Poems. Copyright © 1979, 1980 by Mark Strand. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.
Source: Selected Poems (Alfred A. Knopf, 1990)
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