Proposal for an Arranged Marriage

"Don't talk to strangers",
has finally been repealed by my parents.
In fact they've given me leave,
to marry one.

Let's get arranged married, dear. (may I call you that?)
A ceremony, a hundred happy people,
lights, music, gold and silver,
let's wake up every morning for the rest of our lives,
to the hangover of our wedding night.

A house, with numerous framed pictures of ours,
on the walls, smiling, looking happy,
and the buzz of approving relatives,
would create a love-like feeling.

We may make love before we hold hands,
a little mix-up here and there in the natural course of love,
but in time,
we would have performed every gesture of love.

We would visit a number of places,
and take pictures in backgrounds of romance,
leaves, rocks, water and such,
so that should love take a while to sprout,
in the pictures, and people's remarks on them,
we would at least have created a memory of love.

We would not confront each other,
with worries except for the harmless ones,
this being our elders' arrangement
handed out to us,
is wiser than both of us,
and its smooth sustenance, our obligation.

For the first five years,
let's bottle up the troubles,
and by then, we'll both have enough explosives,
to deter each of us
from letting even a firecracker out.

We'll give our children,
a most peaceful upbringing,
they would never witness conflict out in the open,
they would see love as a smooth sail,
a matter for the adults,
perfect in appearances.
And should they fall in it before the right time,
the conflict, the fury, the helplessness,
would assure them their feeling cannot be love,
it's not what they've seen at home,
and they would collect themselves back,
to become, a few years later,
a part of an arrangement like ours,
perpetuating the cycle.