Somewhere beyond --
that first complete, naked, honest truth
we shared in the moonlight
and the eventual half-truths full of
holes of omission
in the years that followed --
is the place we are in now.

You could be suffering
Clinging to life
Wasting away ever so slowly
and I would never know;
because the truth hurts, or so you say
when you say nothing at all.
We sit in silence.

You have become so absorbed
So obsessed
with protecting me,
my innocence, my love
that the version of you
you want me to see is too perfect;
he's not the man I fell in love with.

Where are your flaws,
your insecurities, your doubts,
your struggles with yourself
and the world? I miss seeing them
in the moonlight as we drive
purposefully nowhere.
You can trust my love with your life.

Marriage is more than a title,
more than late night talk shows on TV
with Chinese takeout on the couch.
It is a lifelong commitment,
a promise to be each other's
first line of defense against the world
and a place to call home.

Marriage is reliving those very first
complete, naked, honest truths
and marveling at the fact that
we are still here.
It is a continuation of that
raw, selfless vulnerability
and a promise never to run.

Marriage is a covenant of love
a love that keeps no record of wrongs
no matter how few or frequent.
A love that trusts, hopes, and endures
because this Earth
was never where we were meant to be.
I love you.