A Bit of Paper

The rain was assaulting

The bit of newspaper that lay

In the street,

The bit of paper announcing

The marriage of two young people

Lay in the street, being assaulted

By the frigid rain.

The frigid rain that assaulted

The bit of newspaper, helpless

On the darkened street, also assaulted

The wedding of the young couple

Whose picture smiled from

The soggy bit of newspaper.

That bit of newspaper had been

Long gone by the time the rain

Assaulted the roof of the hospital

Where the girl from the picture gave birth

To the child of the man from the picture,

Who wasn’t there to hear her screams and

Mop her brow, soggy with exertion.

The assault of the rain

arrived many times

Over the years but couldn’t drown out

The words of anger that assaulted the ears

Of the child born to the woman

And neglected by the man who smiled

From that little scrap of paper in the street.

Today, the rain assaults a little scrap of paper

Unnoticed in a dark alley saying

To forget about the scrap declaring the marriage

Of the smiling man and woman from so many years

Ago. It was just a piece of paper that got it all wrong.

Or was that them?