Goals

Mama & Daddy, 1965, Rhode Island

We didn't have many deep talks.

Conversations were kept light.

But once it was quite different.

He spoke honestly in the night.

If we can't learn from other's mistakes,

We won't be happy, he said.

We will not have a better life,

Our marriage needs to be fed.

For we have seen how our folks act,

How they don't pull together in life,

The love they started out with,

Has ended only in strife.

That's not what we want for each other,

That's not what we want for our life.

We want our home to be happy,

With a loving man and wife.

These were the goals he set for us,

And the life that we now shared,

The night he said these things to me,

And his innermost soul he bared.

Mary J. Stevens

1992