Midge Goldberg

To the Young Woman in the Restroom at the Wedding

So sweet of you to think that I was weeping

For joy over the vows the couple shared.

You sat in the row behind me, kindly keeping

An eye on me, enthralled with how I cared.

Beautiful girl, photographer’s ideal,

You touched me on the arm, leaned on the tile—

My emotional reactions “were so real,”

I helped you “feel them too.” And with a smile

Pasted on, I nodded, headed out.

          My daughter and her beau would not have wed

          Anyway. She talked of serious doubt—

          They weren’t “right for each other,” as these vows said.

O bathroom confidante, please know I cried

That wedding day for a lovely man who died.

Midge Goldberg is the editor of Outer Space: 100 Poems, published by Cambridge University Press in 2022. Her third collection of poetry, To Be Opened After My Death, was published by Kelsay Books in 2021. Her book Snowman’s Code received the Richard Wilbur Poetry Award, and she received the 2016 Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, the poet Robert W. Crawford.