They will never have been so beautiful
as they are here by the pool taking selfies
on a stick in their wedding clothes together,
white tulle misting over blue water,
morning suit as faint as distant smoke
as the candy stripe golf cart edges into shot.
Years later they will have asked who’s the man
with a gloved hand in pink plaid shorts?
Will he have been the secret agent who was sent
to the resort by one of the agencies of despair
with marital bed bombs and mortars of remorse
Or just another questing American
who had lost a ball and needed the nearest bar?
They will never have been so complete
as they are here by the pool taking selfies
on a stick in their wedding clothes together,
white mist, distant smoke, interrupted.
Couples many times more married gaze on,
slung up between palms in rattan hammocks
sipping hi-octane cocktails mid-afternoon,
waiting for the cicadas and salted snacks.
Commended by Brian Patten in the Milestones
international poetry competition, 2017
Mark Fiddes 