and death shall have no dominion

I'm not trying to send any one into paroxysmal PTSD as they remember arduous hours of involved in memorizing Dylan Thomas poems in high school, or anything, but I took this picture weeks ago and wanted to comment on its poignancy.

(Sidebar: didn't they used to make kids memorize poems in high school? I used to think this was wrong, because one should memorize the poem because one likes the poem, not because some teacher is forcing you to memorize it. But then, I thought teachers were wrong for making us copying lines out of the dictionary as a popular punishment for school-related misbehavior. Dictionaries weren't punishment! They were fun! I used to read the dictionary, as a kid, which I know sounds like a lie, because I can't spell worth a damn today as an adult.)

Any hoo.

Lest you think I'm a very creepy person, snapping photos of senior citizens unaware, let me just say my camera is kind of a piece of crap, and the picture was cuter when they were holding hands, but the shutter speed on the camera is so slow, it didn't take the picture I wanted.

Plus, check out the guy's back pack and hiked up training socks! It's Old People Kitsch at its best! And, I love the woman's sun hat.

I can't remember what they were saying to one another, but I'm under the impression that the woman was doing the Wife Bit, and telling the Husband to put on some sunscreen, or something--like it matters now, with the age lines and everything--and he was doing the Husband Bit, and saying, 'Yes, dear."

I think the best thing about marriage at that age must be that you can turn off your hearing aid when your spouse starts yapping at you, and just smile, and nod every once in awhile, and it looks just as convincing as it did when you were younger, and could actually hear your partner (and even have sex with them!) without the use of assistive devices.