Marriage

She may have been the first
to say the words out loud,
but she was only giving voice
to a thing I'd been trying not
to know for a long, long time.

When she said that it was
him or me, the words
rang out like church bells,
shuddering through my bones.

For two days, they sat
in the pit of my belly,
making me sick.

— Joshilyn Jackson, "Backseat Saints"