He was the ring bearer
at my niece’s wedding today,
a stubby three-year-old with
brown saucer eyes, in a tot-size tux.

He walked solemnly up the aisle,
only dropping the pillow once.

Tonight he parades around the banquet hall
wearing two giant foam hands,
one red and one blue,
the kind they give out for those
silly reception dances.

The hands are almost as big as he is;
he slaps them together silently,
like the clap of a mime.
The flower girl marches behind him.

Over by the bar, an older man
lights his mother’s cigarette.

On the ballroom floor,
the bride dances with her father-in-law.

He steps in circles around them all,
in his ritual of quiet applause.

10/02/2001

Posted on 10/02/2001
Copyright © 2026 Bruce W Niedt