Poems (Geisse)/Whispers at a Wedding

by Mary A. Geisse

WHISPERS AT A WEDDING.

Here she comes—the organ's playing,
 Johnny, dear, don't crowd me so;
See, mamma is looking at you,
 You're the rudest boy I know.

Yes, it's she! they all are coming,
 I can see way down the aisle,
And the bride looks awfully solemn;
 I should think she'd want to smile.

Wonder if she thinks it's proper
 For a bride to look that way?
Oughtn't people to look happy
 When it is their wedding day?

Uncle Willie says that marriage
 Is a very serious thing;
That you take a lot of trouble
 With the giving of the ring.

Did you hear him say to father
 That unless he lost his head,
He would always stay a bachelor,
 That he never meant to wed?

Shall you be a bachelor, Johnny?
 I intend to be a wife,
For I'd rather take the trouble
 Than be single all my life.

There's the bridegroom, can you see him?
 Hush! the service has begun,
Don't you hear the preacher speaking?
 We can't talk till he is done.

Now it's over—they are rising,
 See, they're coming down the aisle;
Don't the bride look awfully solemn,
 But I saw the bridegroom smile.

Brother, maybe she is sorry
 That she promised to obey;
Uncle Willie says that women
 Always want to have their way.

That no matter how they're treated,
 They are dreadfully perverse,
So the preacher always tells them,
 It's for better and for worse.

'Cause he thinks he ought to warn them
 Of their danger at the start,
So they know, before they promise
 "Until death us two do part."

Why, if that's not Uncle Willie!
 In the doorway—don't you see?
He is smiling, and is looking
 Straight across at you and me.