Why Marriage Was Invented

By Judith Viorst, author of: I’m Too young To Be Seventy.

We’re on our way to a party, our speed decreased
Because we can’t remember our hostess’s name.
I say it has three syllables at least.
He says it’s like a boy’s name, but not the same.

In our long years together we have shared
One family and one life of joy and pain,
Not knowing that we’ve slowly prepared
To—fifty/fifty—also share one brain.