The Wedding Album

They stood frozen to the spot
Bound by duty and shock
With their hands on the smalls
Of each other's backs.

A glaze pools in their eyes
From the flashbulbs
Whiting out the lines
Wrapping around their faces.

She's trying to look her best
In a second-hand wedding dress
As her makeup withers in the heat
And the beating won't stop in her chest.

"She got rid of so many of them,
Why should I be different?"
He says inside his head
And fidgets with the ring on his hand.

Standing so close together
No one could have guessed
This was the moment
They started pulling apart.