Ever After

[ninanevermore]

Something my friend drippedonpaper said today reminded me of this poem. I wrote it as a 10-year (dating) annivery gift for Jeff, and handed it out at our wedding the next year. It's a love poem about long-term love as opposed to the short term fluff you get in movies and novels.

So here it is, for Valentine's Day. Whatever stage your love is at, I hope you have a great day. If your love is at the "still searching" stage, no problem. Have a nice day anyway.



Ever After

When we met,
I had no idea at all
what happily ever-after
entailed.

My concept of love stopped
at happily ever
and never got to after,
because writers of love stories
never took me further
than the ride into the sunset.

Would I have kept riding,
if I’d known that ever-after
means paying bills
and nursing headaches
and trips to the grocery store
taking the place of
tripping the light fantastic?

It means making ends mean,
(or sometimes not);
it means stupid squabbles
over mundane complaints
that you can’t remember
by the time you start talking again;
it means grinning and bearing
or only grinning
when you can’t bear anymore.

Ever-after mean accepting
what you can’t understand,
it means loving in spite of
instead of because of
and growing up
and growing older
and falling in love again and again
as the years go by
and we both change.

The fairy tale ends
where real life begins
and in the long run
I’ve discovered
that the sunset itself
has a lot more to offer
in mystery and wonder
than I ever dreamed
or imaged possible
when we first rode into it
together.



-Nina Erickson
July 1999
©2010