It’s Poetry Friday! I’m trying to get in the habit of posting more poetry. This week I decided to let one poem do double duty. Gotta ease back into things slowly. Tricia offered up a great  and I finally got around to writing mine about an hour ago. It’s a first draft but I’m going to go ahead and post it anyway. The stretch prompt was to write about “a first something” and my mind, like many others, went to my first kiss.

FIRST KISS

Not my first kiss
not my first boyfriend
but a first kiss from
that friend
who knew me better than anyone
that friend
who happened to be a boy
that friend
who rode his bike
miles and miles
to my grandmother’s house
to stand like a shy soldier
on the yellow front porch,
the dirty screen door the only thing
that separated us,
until he finally asked me
to come outside.

I let the screen door slam behind me
but for once
Nana didn’t yell
or issue warnings
of what we should or shouldn’t do
(that would come later.)

He didn’t speak
that boy
that friend
so I tucked my words beneath my tongue
and followed him
watched
while he leaned against Nana’s blue Oldsmobile
until the door handle jabbed him in the back
and he didn’t move,
he just watched me,
watching him

His hair,
red like strawberries,
tempted me
and I wanted to touch it
to feel its heat
to connect the dots of freckles on his face
to hear his voice
that voice I talked to on the phone
every day
every night
say something
anything
but the silence continued to simmer
and melted my anticipation
until I felt lost
like we were playing musical chairs
and the music had stopped
and I had nowhere to go.

I moved to the shade of the orange tree
inhaled the citrus perfume
let the sturdy trunk support me
and waited.

Overhead bees buzzed
dancing from flower to flower flower
mission accomplished
again and again.

He spoke
at long last
that boy
that friend
about going home
about his paper route
about not being late
headed for his bike
to ride those miles and miles
home again
but before he left
he joined me under the orange tree
and kissed me

for the very first time.

©2010 Susan Taylor Brown
All Rights Reserved

The Poetry Friday roundup can be found at Great Kid Books today.