Marriage - Billie Mears

Belief follows sharp lifts and sweet hugs

in a long marriage, surprising us even when

rocks are encountered and bite at the throat,

wavering the lover’s belief in longevity.

In following hot clouds of discord or indecision,

Belief says, “Swing in the important dances,

cool in the curves of time,

surprise each other out of the blue by believing.

Kiss away the tough mud that

threatens to ruin your best dress.”

Belief is like aged leather: seasoned, enduring,

still vibrant (despite many years of use), and

strong, though clearly worn along some seams.

Belief is the loyal dog,

the key that does not slag,

does not lag behind either,

although it gets lost

sometimes, requiring a

thorough search of one’s

own heart.

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Billie Mears grew up listening to her father's stories at the dinner table every night. He survived the 1919 Flu Pandemic, the Great Depression, and World War II, and these events greatly influenced his views about life’s blessings and tragedies. Coming of age in the Deep South during equally difficult historical decades of the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement, along with the assassinations of John and Bobby Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King all shaped Billie’s own writing and how she crafts her characters. She writes the kind of stories and poetry she likes to read: first-person introspective accounts of ordinary life and death interrupted by the evolving world around her characters.