Drawn into Her Dream of No “I do”
by MFrostDelaney

A picture of her aunt who was a dean
of one quaint college nestled in the woods
sends her into lamenting, “Oh, what if …
If I had gone to college,” then she stares.

Would she have married, chased that 50’s dream
of having kids and bundling them in hoods
in winter snow, the house filled with the whiff
of fresh-brewed coffee, all her family cares?

And would it not have gone so wrong:
divorce, depression, struggling with the kids,
the string of boyfriends, always so alone,
but always painting on a happy face.

“An education could have kept me strong,”
or so she thinks, embraces that, and bids
her dream playout, the one she wants to own.
“If I had never married … not a trace

of grief, take back I do.” What would she say,
instead? And what would happen on that day?



 

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