My stepson and his girlfriend are finally living together after a year and a half of a long-distance romance. I was watching them yesterday attempting to make a pound cake together, obviously enjoying every minute of it despite getting in each other’s way constantly, and later falling asleep on each other while watching TV. It may not do my reputation any favors, but I can admit to feeling a bit verklempt as I looked at them, illuminated in the cathode glow, and thought of another poem by Auden:
Do not turn, do not lift your eyes
Toward the still pair standing
On the bridge between your properties,
Indifferent to your minding:
In its glory, in its power,
This is their hour.
Nothing your strength, your skill could do
Can alter their embrace
Or dispersuade the Furies who
At the appointed place
With claw and dreadful brow
Wait for them now.
Good luck, you two.