Poem: "Nuptial Arrangements"
This poem is today's second freebie, courtesy of new prompter tomtac, who also provided the inspiration for it.
Nuptial Arrangements
Marriage was never supposed to be
all about love or sex.
If those things happened,
well, that was all right,
but they weren't what marriage was about,
not in the thousands of years of our history.
Marriage was about alliance,
carefully negotiated in the pre-nuptial contract.
It was about joining two families together,
not just two individuals.
It was most often done for money and power,
not because someone fell in love or at least lust.
"I know you really wanted children, Charlene.
But Danielle is rich and her father owns U.S. Steel!"
"Well, what are you going to do when I die without an heir?"
"There's always artificial insemination, or adoption."
Marriage was arranged by the parents,
used to unite any two eligible people
for the commonly desired goal --
who might or might not be
each other's preferred sex of partner.
If you got the kind of spouse you wanted,
then you could learn to be fond of each other;
and if not, you could take a lover quietly on the side,
a popular provision in marriage contracts.
"Robin, I know you really wanted someone kinky,
but Sam is related to three different senators!"
"So you don't care if I die of boredom?"
"So I care more about repealing anti-kink laws."
Sometimes people wound up marrying their best friends,
or their business partners, and developed
a close platonic relationship. Then it didn't matter
if they were sexually compatible or not.
Asexual people could form permanent relationships
that did not oblige them to copulate.
Infertile people were not shut out of the pairing process
nor left to grow old and die alone.
Children in need of adoptive homes quickly found them,
because not all couples could bear children together.
"What will marriage be like, really?"
"Your genitals think of tomorrow.
Your heart thinks of next decade.
Your brain thinks of the next generation.
Getting married is just a matter of learning
to think your way up your spinal column."