Who imagined me first?

i wonder if she imagined me
that day she wore the white gown
and her father walked her down
the aisle of that little episcople church
in Reading, MA

She never said,
anything but how she loved him,
how he looked so dapper in his charcoal suit
as he opened the door to the big black car
and stole her away for a honeymoon in the big City.

He once said,
he couldn't dream of me
until he was much older

His mother had died when he was less than two
and his father when he was twelve
then the depression and the war
left him hopeless
ready to die somemore
so that some real person might
grow old and love their grandchildren.

But she never said
if she was so hopeless too
even in the face of Love
on God's altar.

It is silly but
i think I was there
that january in 1947.