Cuffs Of Gold

"Kill me" I said to my partner,
"Take my freedom away from thee".
Home of my own - financial bond,
May destroy my soul that's so free.

"So where to" I ask myself,
"Do I want to go down there".
Near to the fear - societies weight,
That compels me this cross to bare.



"Don't worry" they all try to tell me,
"With children you'll never be sorry"!
Strife of my life - ball and chain,
As much fun as a garbage lorry.

"Paint walls" my mother instructs me,
"You're worse than a cockroach that crawls".
Thrill of my drill - domestic bliss,
The end of my bachelor jôls.



"No guts" my devil mocks me,
"You're the joke of a thousand buts".
Weak and too meek - a spineless shit,
Without any real nuts.

"Do it" my angel soothes me,
"Drag yourself out of the pit".
Sign of the time - growing up,
Oxycute emotional zits.



"It's done" we sigh with relief,
"We actually had some fun"!
Smile down the aisle - keep the pose,
We sprinted that final run.

"Good luck" they all wish us,
"She'll keep you out of the muck".
Love of my life - Débra Pautz,
Forever stay my "Buck" ;-)



Psyching myself up to propose, convincing myself up to get married, and then revelling in the event!

Having lived through my parents volatile union, I was totally anti-marriage by the time I met my future wife in early 1983. I started writing this 12 years into our relationship when the "So, what's next?" thoughts began invading my consciousness, and I started experiencing family and peer pressure to conform. A few boozy counselling sessions with Hartmut von der Ohe gave me focus, and Débra and I married in our 13th year together. Soon thereafter, I relocated to the Czech Republic and we spent our first year together on opposite sides of the planet!

I finished this piece on a frozen bus, in the deep snow on the road from Brno to Prague. My company did not have company cars back then, and I could not afford one, so I had caught a lift (in a Škoda 120) to Brno where I spent the day working at a campus recruiting event. The old run-down bus was the only way I had to travel the 210km back home, it was the worst winter in 75 years, I was feeling pretty miserable and was really missing Debs.

Penned on May 5, 1994 & December 9, 1994 (in Pretoria, South Africa) and on December 8, 1995 (on a cold bus from Brno to Prague, Czech Republic).

Cheers, MAlfaRK ©