The first time I married
I asked my mother
for her wedding dress,
wanted to cut
a piece from it to make
a handkerchief, wanted
to carry a piece
of my parents’ marriage down
the aisle with me. My mother
refused. Even though I was
her last daughter to marry.
Even though her dress lay
carefully folded in her cedar
chest, slowly yellowing.
Three years later, when I told
her we were separating she told
me she was glad
she hadn’t allowed me to destroy
her dress. Since I was destroying
my marriage. Since I didn’t
understand the sanctity of it all.
The second time I married
I eloped, exchanged vows
in the wilds of Alaska. I wore
a custom-made dress in pale
champagne and white lace.
Carried only a bouquet
of wild flowers picked
from the property. My mother
was the last person
I called.
© Courtney LeBlanc
Courtney LeBlanc is the author of the chapbooks All in the Family (Bottlecap Press) and The Violence Within (Flutter Press) and is an MFA candidate at Queens University of Charlotte. Her poetry is published or forthcoming in Public Pool, Rising Phoenix Review, The Legendary, Germ Magazine, Quail Bell Magazine, Brain Mill Press, Haunted Waters Press, and others. She loves nail polish, wine, and tattoos. Read her blog at www.wordperv.com, follow her on twitter: @wordperv, or find her on facebook: www.facebook.com/poetry.