Inheriting a Marriage

I inherited their marriage,

though (I’m certain) that was not

                     their intention.

She whispered to me often,

    “Do not go gentle into that altered night.

    Like fins in an algae covered net

    you too

             will be trapped.”

Decades later
with different jewels
he forgot the jaded rules
and rubbed his

palms

(already smooth)

along the hardened pew.

She laughed at him and screamed,

"That's not my name!

The mirror belongs to no one!

The winter is full of frozen water, not ice!"

They became

compassionate strangers
with four working hands
but their

voices no longer matched

the ones they heard before.

They stood like wood

rotten from the inside.

They swam like fish upstream.

              They pretended to be   the people

                     that others wanted them to be.