Archaeology of a Wedding

by Cynthia Anderson


Under it all, a four-year-old
grins ear to ear as she holds
her bride and groom dolls,
tiny arms like flagpoles.

Later, she doesn’t wear white.
In an orange orchard,
by an almond tree, the minister
laughs while they kiss.

Each year deposits a layer
of rock—fights, leavings.
A woman alone in her room
stares at the floorboards

as one by one, her friends
find gold. So as not to be
forgotten, she decides
to marry the moon.

It’s not her, then,
but the child who cries
after last night’s dream:

a couple in white
runs up the street,
pulling the trunks
for their honeymoon.


* * * * *

Cynthia Anderson has published ten poetry collections, most recently The Missing Peace (Velvet Dusk Publishing, 2021). Her poems frequently appear in journals and anthologies, and she is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee. In 2020, she took up short form poetry and since then has been exploring haiku, senryu, cherita, and related forms. Cynthia is co-editor of the anthology A Bird Black As the Sun: California Poets on Crows & Ravens. She makes her home in the Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree National Park. www.cynthiaandersonpoet.com