the fairytale of marriage

Most young people think
marriage is happily ever after.
I'd never been one to believe that
Fairytale? I said, "Never!"

But right after the I-do's
as soon as my honeymoon ended,
I was proven wrong,
Marriage is a fairytale indeed.

John came home from work
and by the clothing trail,
from our bedroom door to our bed,
he had turned into Hansel, or even Gretel.

Shoe here... Shoe there.
As if Cinderella just fled.
Sock... Belt... Shirt... And other sock...
Trousers strewn across the floor and bed.

And that evening, around midnight
With his incessant huff and puff
it seemed the man beside me
had turned into the Big Bad Wolf!

When finally the snoring came to an end,
I felt a wave whenever he tossed and turned.
Seemed so much like a big Pea
on the bed of the sudden Princess in me.

And when our little one came,
during every midnight feeding,
John turned into Aurora
and just wouldn't stop sleeping.

Truly I was mistaken
because marriage has really turned out,
despite (and because of) these, to be
a fairytale I really CANNOT live without.

Inspired by The Hunchback of Neiman Marcus by Sonya Sones

As with Sones, my husband is NOT
the husband in this free verse.
Really, seriously,
this wife unequivocally swears.

Photo from theessentialist.