He brought her to America from 8,000 miles across the sea.
For four years he was married to her in Davao, Philippines.
She had a two year old son born with water on the brain,
So heartbreaking, bedbound twenty four hours each sad day
Unable to walk or talk, vegetating, no life, sad sight.
He paid for medical bills to ease the child’s suffering.
Age six, the child died, thousands of tears, many cried.
An unfair life. What was the point? Why him? He cried too.
He asked his Filipina wife if she wanted to come to America.
She never asked to go to America, but was excited to when he asked.
He felt it might ease her grief, give her a better life.
He had a perfect plan for a happy life for her and him.
He helped her unreservedly day and night to ease the transition,
Didn’t want her to be lonely, encouraged her to make Filipina friends
Of which there were many in the city where he lived.
Sadly his many good deeds for her got severely punished.
She began spending more time with new friends, neglected him.
She found Filipina friends who had more stuff $$$, one an engineer’s wife.
She became a different person with a new and constant interest $$$.
She spoke of Filipinas with husbands making more $$$.
Anger churned in him. He held it inside, never exposed it to her.
He saw the writing on the fading wall of their dwindling marriage.
One day he noticed she wasn’t wearing her wedding band,
Wedding bands were sacred to him, always wore his.
He realized the inevitable had arrived like a storm out of the sky.
He said she didn’t have to be married to him if she didn’t want to be;
No one is forcing you to stay here, you can leave anytime you want.
He said the words he knew she wanted to hear.
He deduced she feared he’d make an inconvenient scene.
She didn’t know he wasn’t like that, no controls
No begging, no attempts to persuade a woman to stay.
She said she’d leave the next day. He wasn’t surprised.
Broken hearted, he drove his car into a cold, moonless night.
He drove aimlessly, crazily, angrily, tearfully.
He threw his wedding ring out of the car, done with her,
And heartsick that with all he’d done for her, too much to say,
She threw their marriage away on that cold and moonless night.
He hated her for three long years after that,
Easy to let go of the love, hard with the hate
After everything he did for her and her son.
Then one day the hate evaporated completely.
And though he was forever over and done with her
And would never see her, and never wanted to,
He hoped she was okay and didn’t make a mistake
With an abusive man who would harm her.
An awful possibility that might have happened
She was young in the mind and dangerously naive.
He regretted having been married to her, an old fool’s mistake.
He wanted to save her from the Philippines poverty with a better life.
He never saw the new land change coming, seemed impossible.
Though she treated him like an ingrate and ran away
He didn’t regret helping her son.
For that it was worth the pain he gladly paid.
Bob Boyd
