Maybelle Smith Inquires Into The Truth of Marriage - an art work by T Newfields Can someone please tell me the truth of what marriage is?
Is it a union of convenience or a sacred pledge?
It is a business lease or penalty for temporary insanity?

How many more dishes must I wash & shirts must I clean
before the louse sleeping next to me admits the truth
that marriage is legalized slavery?

Why are so many marriages covered up affairs?
Why can't more recognize matrimony as a gambling game
in which the only assured outcomes are misery & pain?

I'm tired of the sham & wanna proclaim:
marriage is a kind of alchemy through which
princes become frogs & princesses warthogs.

In this institution both parties are ultimately debased,
yet in spite of its inherent dangers somehow
wedlock is embraced . . .