I’m sure you’ve known some couples like his folks –
long-married, incompatible, and old,
no longer sharing attitudes or jokes,
their interactions silent, often cold.
The husband seems an easy-going guy.
The wife appears judgmental, brusque, or sad.
You wonder they’re together – how and why
does he put up with her and not go mad?

I wondered too, until I posed the thought
problem – how would my present be, if I
had stuck it out? What would those years have brought?
I gave the question time, and said “Oh my,”
for what I saw was me embittered so,
outsiders questioned why he didn’t go.