-ation

Marriage by my defination (sorry)
Requires a public proclamation,
A succinct and heartfelt declaration
Of your mutual determination
To abstain from copulation
With any save this chosen mate.

And this vow, the culmination
Of your mutual adoration,
Admits of little variation
If your lover’s admiration
Be maintained sans alteration.
Be faithful or be shown the gate.

To fulfill this expectation
Requires some fancy sublimation:
Alien desires’ negation,
Variety’s spice renunciation,
And all others forsakation (oops).
Get that through your thick-skulled pate.

If you heed this exhortation,
Do not incur vile condemnation,
By lapsing into fornication,
You’ll enjoy a rare elation
Through years of wedded jubilation.
If not, divorce will be your fate.

Then this new-found liberation
Prompts renewed exploration,
Seeking love’s next permutation
And writing out an invitation
To hear you reiterate renunciation.
This time you will not vacillate.

Human nature’s sad reputation  
Is to tire of replication
Never show appreciation
But chase a sexual validation
In arms not yours by affirmation.
This weakness rarely do we contemplate.

So please excuse my fulmination
In this preachy, rhymed oration.
Your fatigue of endings –ation
Matches mine from realization
Of how tedious this forced manipulation
Becomes when it’s one’s sole mandate.

                                                Sandy Price

Sandy Price, who is a PRCW board member, read this at the June Open Mic. She usually works in prose, writing short stories and working on a novel. This poetry lite departure was a result of being thunderstruck at the limitless number of words that end in –ation. Believe it or not, she has a list of 30 more that she didn’t use.