An eight year marriage argument.
Mean and ugly words
spatter like kitchen grease.
Wiggling diaper baby
hangs off her side,
seven year old snot nose
sobs in the corner.
His stolid arms
locked in silence,
angry belly protrudes
low over his belt.
The Date Fairy appears.
No wings or wand.
A sad smile on her face,
a mirror in her hand.
The couple stops raging,
the children hush.
The Fairy holds up the mirror
so all can see.
A light flashes.
The couple is at a table
in a coffee shop.
They have just met.
Coo like pigeons,
they talk and talk.
No words heard
in the mirror,
just smiles, love.
He takes her hand.
She squeezes back.
Mad love that night,
married in a year.
Out popped the snot nose,
soon the hanging diaper,
monster bills and Mother-in-Law,
nasty psoriasis,
a mutt found their door,
he didn’t want it, she did.
Their words from soft to hard.
The mirror repeats,
stops at the hand squeeze.
The Date Fairy vanishes.
Originally published in Terror House Magazine