Customs and Marriage

This family is fretting
the first gate, quietly demanding
of their pants and jacket pockets
the boarding passes they'll produce

for the disinterested inspector
whom I pass, losing sight
and the swirl of their soft panic,
until again at the flight gate

they are unstill,
searching out other pouches,
changing hats and draping
themselves in tassell-shawled

prayer, binding and unbinding
a final, recited security check
so they become indestructible
together.