With These Rings ... ... we (now fifty years ago!) us wed. Two rings fresh-minted, blazoning out Just-Married and we fresh-faced with nothing in the bank and a flat in – marvellous name! – Hope Park. See how they’ve been transmuted as Time has fled: scratched and worn, too tight or prudently enlarged. And we? Weather-beaten & harrowed. But you lovely as ever though your heart is limping; it’s those years of generous loving. Scenes from the life we have made go round in my head. I had thought of saying we were goldsmiths working away at the same task, getting it wrong, getting it right, but no – it’s more like alchemy: how did I find such gold? Me, thou – darling woman, I do so love us wed! © John Looker 2018 Yes, my wife and I have reached our Golden Wedding Anniversary and I am immensely fortunate.