It will make your reflection
a wobbling photo of grief.
I am trying to be truthful.
Not a cute card or a kissogram.
I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
possessive and faithful
as we are,
for as long as we are.
Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,
if you like.
Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers,
cling to your knife.
Any marriage proposal is, essentially, lethal. When proposed to, no matter what the response is, the relationship will change. A proposal is pivotal. Refusal may mean the end of the relationship, acceptance may alter the ‘power balance’. The question is ‘lethal’ as those four words (“Will you marry me?”) change the relationship forever. 
 This seems to be supported by Carol Ann Duffy’s personal experience of love and relationships from an interview in 2010: I 
 think one uses the phrase “fall in love” for a reason. The glamour comes from the falling and the hell is the inevitable crunch at the bottom.'
Valentine