the eighth



Match, Made
Now that I’ve found love
I look at couples without envy,
attuned to the new energy
of a freshly-formed pair.
This twosome moseying towards me
keep their noses parallel,
their dewey eyes still too shy
to impose upon each other.
In their fingers, interlocked, I see
a rough sketch of my marriage —
the dots we’ve since connected —
but to them this holding of hands
has the frisson of children shocked
at finally tying their own shoes,
an inkling of mission accomplished, perchance,
as they gently swing them back and forth
to see what they might do.
Shane Schick's poems have been published in literary journals across Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Africa. He is the founder of a publicdation about customer experience designed called 360 Magazine. He lives in Toronto. More: shaneschick.com/poetry Twitter: @ShaneSchick