Married Life

Posted by Maximum Fun on 27th July 2008

As many of you know, I’m getting married in a couple of weeks. I’ll be away from the blog for a solid 14 days or so (though I will have some able substitutes), and there’ll be no new Sound of Young America podcasts during that time.

Getting married is what we in the being a person business call “kind of a big deal,” and I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I want to have babies and host barbeques and visit a lake house and all that stuff. Beyond those vague ideas, though, I’ve had a hard time imagining myself as a married man.

Then earlier today I read this poem, and I realized exactly what I want my life to be.

Danse Russe
by William Carlos Williams

If when my wife is sleeping
and the baby and Kathleen
are sleeping
and the sun is a flame-white disc
in silken mists
above shining trees,—
if I in my north room
dance naked, grotesquely
before my mirror
waving my shirt round my head
and singing softly to myself:
“I am lonely, lonely.
I was born to be lonely,
I am best so!”
If I admire my arms, my face,
my shoulders, flanks, buttocks
against the yellow drawn shades,—

Who shall say I am not
the happy genius of my household?