David Harris - Forty-One

The years have rolled away
one after the other,
but it is only like yesterday
when it all begun.
It was a Saturday in September,
I remember it so well
and I was as nervous as could be.

The sun was shining thankfully
and the big day had arrived.
My best man took me for a drive
miles away from where I should be.
I became a clock-watcher,
watching the minutes tick on by
and fearing all the time I’d be late.

My heart was beating franticly
as I watched the hands on my watch.
My best man seemed to drag it out.
However, would I get there on time?
If this was to calm me down
it was having the opposite effect.
My hands were shaking like a leaf on a windy day.

Finally we started back,
my fears still not relieved.
I glanced at my watch
every time we had to stop.
Thinking all the while,
we were going to be late,
but my best man wasn’t ruffled.

My panic tones kept echoing
until we stopped outside
the small church down the street
from where I lived.
Thankfully, we got there
just in the nick of time,
as my bride had not arrived yet.

Here forty-one years later
I still remember my panic
on our wedding day,
as I wondered if I would
get there in time
to say the words I do,
but I did.

In a couple of weeks
we celebrate again
as another year has sped by.
Are we still happy?
Through all our troubles
and discord through the years,
we are still together
and that answers the question.



1 September 2011

David Harris

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/forty-one/