MUSH AND GOO / PHYLLIS BEATS BRIAN

Daughter Margie has reminded me that Phyllis and my life together was not all mush and goo, as may have been suggested in some of my writings. Yes, we sometimes had our differences, but beneath the surface ripples was always the deep flowing current of underlying love.

I’ll explain this with excerpts from a couple of my poems to her. A few lines from the first poem read:

We’ve been married for so long to each other
That we know everything that’s wrong with one another

But in spite of the foregoing
There’s a lot of love that’s flowing

And its luster keeps us going
And it’s growing

A few lines from the second poem read:

And though we have our ups and downs
The smiles by far exceed the frowns

For even when we don’t agree
I still love her and she loves me

And so for now what shall I do?
I’ll just continue loving you

And so it was. And it was wonderful. I cry as I write this.

PHYLLIS BEATS BRIAN

As I was writing above, I was revisited by a memory that is too good to not tell.

In the early days of our marriage, we had occasional disagreements on unimportant things.

One evening we were having, what we referred to, as a fight about some unimportant thing. Phyllis got so enthusiastic about expressing her view that she started beating me on the chest with the sides of her clenched fists.

She really didn’t want to hurt me. She knew that she was not hurting me. She was just emphasizing a point that she was making—kind of like using an exclamation mark.

Her strategy went astray when she looked so cute beating me on the chest that I forgot what the fight was about.

Talk about Kiss and make up!! What a memory!!