A MOTHER’S PRAYER I’ve seen those eyes before at another wedding. The bride. lovely in white satin and lace, looking adoringly at the groom. He seemed wary in the setting. This other groom smiles slyly at my younger daughter, who like her sister, beams in eagerness for their future life. Not quite two months goes by and the new groom wants to travel to Germany without his new bride. I say, newly married couples usually like to go on vacations together, even offer money so she can join him. He makes excuses, they break up, then he’s back in her life. I shrug and figure they’re immature kids. When he acts up again, my daughter calls me up crying. I recall their wedding: a lavender motif, garlands of roses, the bride could’ve posed for Brides magazine. The video man asked me to say a few words. I hesitated, then said, I hope God blesses their marriage; they’re both young. I’m a God-fearing woman who wants the best for my daughters, and I worry about their topsy-turvy married lives. So I laugh when my daughter points out, You’re the only mother I know who prays for her daughters to have affairs.
Barbara Eknoian is a poet and novelist. Her work has appeared in Chiron Review, Silver Birch Press, and Your Daily Poem. Her recent book is a collection of short stories, Romance is Not Too Far From Here. She hails from New Jersey and has never lost her accent.
All rights © Barbara Eknoian
a moon of one's own 