'So when will you be getting a boyfriend?', they tease
'Oh, I don't even want to get married',
They laugh. I smile. And the conversation ends
Easily dismissed as a joke, some playful remark
They laugh away a truth they've spent years denying
They ignore the reasons glaringly left unsaid
Like the children their husbands have fathered outside their wombs
Like the woman who has ruined our family silently dining with us
No one spares a glance at the elephant living by them
For the sake of family, for what is seen
And then they all think that I rejoice at the thought of having their lives
Trophy wives who settle down, busy raising their trophy children
Brandishing the perfection they're so desperate to cling to
An expensive vase glued together
Priceless
Worthless