In Luck
by Michelle Matthees
I didn’t take a picture of their wedding. Instead, I took one of the sun through an arched window rimmed with stone, and then I deleted it. Everyone deserves their privacy; I hadn’t been invited. Peering down from the second floor, I saw the tops of their heads, saw the bent priest check the time on his phone. She was lithe in a peach dress and long dark hair. The groom wore a starched blue shirt and his best pair of jeans. Another couple, their friends, were holding the ring and snapping pictures with an iPhone. I think I managed to avoid appearing in any of the pictures, drifting up there in jeans, a red t-shirt, new boots, and above me the patterned dome missing huge flecks of fresco. I didn’t understand a word. I saw the exchanging of the rings. I saw the wearing of the crowns. I saw all the white carnations opening. I heard the priest chanting, slipping between the minor and major keys, droning. I can’t tell what kind of luck my presence brought them, if any, as they later sped down the hill in a blue Peugeot. I wished them well, stepping from the road to grant them the speed they were seeking.
Michelle Matthees has published two books of poetry, Complicated Warding, about institutionalization circa 1900, and Flucht, about Eastern Europe and adoption. A graduate of the University of Minnesota MFA Program, she has been awarded numerous grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, The Jerome Foundation, and ARAC. More information about her work can be found at www.michellematthees.com.
Having landed on the day of the strangers’ wedding, photograph, 2019: interior of St. Peter’s Church, Novi Pazar. Click image to enlarge.