Chicago's Where Their Friends (Plutonic Sonnets 157)

Chicago’s where their friends thought they would wed,

But Glenn and Helen from the train stepped down

Far from the madding crowd, en route, instead

Into the very small Nevada town

Of Caliente, which, good as its name,

Was hot indeed; and dust was all around.

But as for marriage, the couple’s aim:

No one to make it legal could be found!

But Pioche, twenty-five miles up the road

(At length a local man named Ev advised),

Could boast a judge, so with the mailtruck’s load

They got delivered, and were legalized

As soon as Helen Griggs had watched her guy,

Glenn Seaborg, polish off his apple pie.