On a glory night

National/Global Poetry Writing Month, Day 28: I can't remember why a song about the end of the Cold War became so important to us as a couple. But it did.

My oldest son folds cranes and leaves them all over the house (sometimes in piles).

NaPoWriMo.net #28: “Music features heavily in human rituals and celebrations. We play music at parties; we play it in parades, and at weddings. In her poem, OBIT [Music], Victoria Chang describes the role that music played in her mother’s funeral. Today, we challenge you to write a poem that involves music at a ceremony or event of some kind.”

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It was the end of the party. A ring of people remained:
the high school friends of the bride and groom
who had joined forces, small town to small town.
The groom’s friends were almost certainly all drunk
since the bar had been gloriously open. 
(Later, the bride’s father caught them trying to take 
the last of the bottles. The less said about this, the better.)

For now, a circle had formed, the last few tunes playing,
the bride still white in her dress, the groom’s morning coat 
watching from a chair. The final song began to breathe:
an outro of whistling, a power ballad.
The groom began to sing—not as he had 
during the ceremony, solemn and in Portuguese, 
but only as a silly person would, flushed with matrimony.

The groom sang, and the friends swayed, and the bride 
pretended to faint with admiration, clasping her hands.
The glittering barrettes holding her bun back
fell to the floor under weaving feet. 
The groom’s Windsor knot hung loose.
They danced until the end of the song, 
whistle fading out, lights coming back on.

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“The Wind of Change” by Scorpions