Love Locks

Allegheny Cemetery Mausoleum Door. Photo by the author.

by Brett Rutherford

A blight
on urban bridges,
unwelcome as dead rats
or pigeon-droppings,
padlocks entwined
with chain-link fencing,
lipstick initialed
with names, initials,
swearing eternal love
as rust corrodes
and shifting fancies
make mockery
of mawkish vows.

Some vows are serious,
kept grudgingly
against the decades.
Though she is gone,
he plods along
until a second Mrs
love-locks him in.

And just in case,
the first wife's mausoleum
upon its barred door
has a double chain,
the sternest padlock
impervious to weather.

Old love is locked
securely in.
Better safe than sorry.