Heartbreak: A Micro Memoir

One of my writing group buddies attended the Sanibel Island Writing Conference this month, and she shared a new form she learned about in a workshop. It's called Micro memoir, and after reading a couple of hers I couldn't resist the urge to to try it out. So, here it goes...


"Since we're going to get married," I told him. "I need to tell you something." I confessed to my fiancé, lying on a bed cuddling, that I had been with another guy while we apart in college. In his heart I think he knew it, but I needed to make sure we didn't start our marriage with a lie. I worried because there was no explosion. Just a long silence. He said he'd get over it and he still wanted to marry me. I said I was worried he'd hold it in and later hold it over my head. I was relieved because I was able to shed the weight of a secret, but I was nervous he'd never get over it. And we moved on. At least we tried to. Twenty years of marriage, a solid and faithful one, and we never spoke of it again- until a couple of weeks ago when I was reading aloud a stupid Signs You Know You're Soulmates or in a successful marriage or whatever list on Facebook. Amidst the list items about laughing at each other's jokes, enjoying each other's company in silence, blah, blah, blah, it said:

"You've never broken each other's hearts." 

I said, "That's true."

He said, "Well..." And we both knew exactly what he meant. Ouch.

Early

Soft fingery tickles 

Tender warm caresses

He gently sweeps the wispy hairs from my face

And cradles his thighs beneath my buttocks

He pulls me close and whispers

I love you

Pressing his skin to mine

I can feel his heart

He pulls his fingertips the length of my arm

Each of my tiny hairs stand on end

It is early, I insist with my eyes still closed

He pulls me in closer

A kiss behind my ear

And I feel his love

His early morning affection

My daily vitamin

My husband and I have a one-of-a-kind relationship. Together since we were 16 and 18 years old, happily I might add, we have been called unique, unusual, not the norm, an anomaly, a miracle. We know how lucky we are and talk about it regularly.

But I have always wanted to capture that early morning feeling I get waking up next to him. We both have trouble sleeping when the other is away, and those early morning minutes whether workday or weekend, between waking into consciousness and getting out of bed, are some of his most tender moments. It is as though before the weight of the world hits us, our love is pure and private and just us. It is not a particularly sexual feeling, but an emotionally secure and loving feeling. This poem is my tribute to him and that feeling.