Marriage (Wedding Ceremony Poem)

Below is the poem I wrote for (and recited as a part of) our wedding ceremony.
We all sit in small canoes
atop a sea of our acquaintances.
We paddle with our hands and meet others;
some paddle toward us,
some paddle away,
and some are simply brought to us on the tide.

To love another is to touch hands
if only for a moment
and cherish the pulse of their wake
as it undulates against the hull
of your solitary vessel.

Far too often do we float along, chatting;
or congregate like motes of dust on a window sill
waiting to be swept away.
But gusts of wind do more to chill our skin
than to bring us closer in.

There are those with whom we collide,
a thunderous crack and sealant scratched, and there are others
who never come quite close enough for contact
but the sea offers little consolation; its crests crumble inward
like concrete pipes under pressure.

However, some of us do meet.
Some paddle in circles,
some lash their boats together,
but you and I, today, enter a new boat
and watch our old ones drift away.