A Cautionary Tale

​We all have aspirations in life, places we’d like to go, and things we’d like to do. We live our lives in groups, pairs, and pairs that group; but none want to live alone.

Alone – to be without community; to be without love.

It is I, we, us who are without who have become a cautionary tale women tell themselves and their daughters. Do whatever it takes but do not end up single.

Single – a woman who is without a man.  

We are seen and unseen. Friended and unfriended. Invited and uninvited. Looked upon with a selfish pity. I’m so glad I’m not you.

I thought I was single and found out I was a leper. A daily, monthly, yearly deterioration. Annexed from society. Treated with an unflattering delicacy. Bring them around but watch them closely. Bring them around but not too often.

What happens when women marry? Do they forget? Do they cross over and look back on their former lives as though someone else lived it?

Marriage – the promised land. A place of unity, harmony, and sex. It is after all what we were created for.

You hear it, the women giggling uncontrollably. Smiling at the thought of what they have. Living the life they once dreamed of. Having and holding.

We all have things we’d like to do, places we’d like to go, and we’d all rather be and go with someone we love.

Church bells and the assaulting scent of flowers and a room filled with white. Kissing and moaning and belly’s that swell. Fanfare for the uninitiated.

When they see us, the married women smile, wave, and say I’m so glad I didn’t end up like that—alone. 

​Christine A.​