Bill Roberts, Poet

The Secret to a Successful Marriage

Author: Bill Roberts

Now that I’ve captured your attention,

you’ll probably expect me to reveal

how it happens that I’ve been married

happily for the most part to the same

woman these past forty-eight years.

Sorry that I’ve misled you and probably

will disappoint you – I simply don’t know

how it happened….but it did, and my

wife and I are living testimony that it

can happen – stay happily married, I mean.

Maybe it was because we got to know

one aonther in those two years before

we got married and settled down, so to

speak, though we never really have done

that, settled down, taken anything for granted.

We contest nearly everything, even after

reaching the point where we trust one

another’s judgment (though mine isn’t

always to be trusted – to wit:  clothing I buy

without aforethought from mail order ‘zines).

It’s simply that we like pretty much the same

things – music, travel, food, drink, people,

books, movies, plays – and avoid pretty much

the same things – religion, politics, TV shows,

cell phones, joining groups, and most effluvia.

We’re not the same, and vive la difference.

So, don’t try to sell either one of us on crap

that’s unimportant and won’t figure into our

lives. We just don’t buy it.  We’ve heard it

all, seen most of it, and are set in our ways.

That said, let’s get down to the real secret.

We still enjoy sex.  And with one another!

Is that truly the secret?  Of course not.

We really just enjoy being with each other,

hugs and kisses – just not all the damned time.

(Published in the Fall 2006 online issue of Long Story Short)

Note:  The poem says it all, no further explanation needed.  Oh, and by the way – we’ve been married now going on 52 years in February 2010 – to repeat, happily for the most part.

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