In Sickness and In Health

The famous line in marriage vows Actually does no justice to reality and truth For it does not capture the unseen and unsaid The uncertainties and certainties

In life's changing tides and seasons In growth and stagnancy; In plenty and lack Through changing tides and times Crashing waves and stormy days Rough winds and bitter blizzards

Those vows lightly spoken Through love-struck lips and adoring eyes Do not even begin to scratch the surface Of unknown tomorrows and unseen unpredictabilities

Personal demons and individual peculiarities Responsibility, responsibilities and more responsibilities Reality making bare life in all its ugliness and messiness

Two lovers seeking to be one Family and friends gather to rejoice Refusing to taint their joy with naked truth Preferring instead to shower prayers and blessings Prophecies and proclamations Silently hoping that the Almighty would come alongside And Fortify them for the torturous journey ahead

For life, circumstances, forces and situations Cares, worries, problems and fears Personal battles, individual proclivities Temperaments, life decisions and the many more things That lie on the way

Will weary and tear and shred Stretch, suffer, test and try Knock, stomp, beat and break Wring, squeeze, vex and upend

Till your breaking point reaches breaking point Testing your mettle again and again To see if you have what it takes To see if you will lay flat or get up and continue the fight

The vows left unspoken should have thus declared In trouble and In pain; In brokenness and assailed In bitterness and tears; In crucibles and In challenges In turmoil and crushing weights; Through storms and violent winds Unsteady waters and thrashing seas; Unknown morrows and uncertain tomorrows Through lack and little; difficulties and mishappenstance Through life's unending cycles and constant changes

To the young starry-eyed couple I pray your love and sacrifice and work be enough And that God see you through In sickness and In health In brokenness and In pain From this day henceforth and forever more

Faminu Imabong