Because

Because the night you asked me,

the small scar of the quarter moon

had healed—the moon was whole again;

because life seemed so short;

because life stretched before me

like the darkened halls of nightmare;

because I knew exactly what I wanted;

because I knew exactly nothing;

because I shed my childhood with my clothes—

they both had years of wear left in them;

because your eyes were darker than my father’s;

because my father said I could do better;

because I wanted badly to say no;

because Stanley Kowalski shouted “Stella…;”

because you were a door I could slam shut;

because endings are written before beginnings;

because I knew that after twenty years

you’d bring the plants inside for winter

and make a jungle we’d sleep in naked;

because I had free will;

because everything is ordained;

I said yes.

—

This is from Carnival Evening by Linda Pastan, published by W.W. Norton & Company, 1998.