kissing.

Two older poems, never before published!

1.

Can I kiss you? You ask.

I’ve been waiting twenty

Years for the question

And four weeks for

Your guts to muster

Some courage

We lean left; less than

5% of the population does

And your lips with

That irresistible freckle

Move, along with two

Sky-colored eyes, toward

My face.

And I wanted it and

I wanted you.

We holds hands like a

Kiss already, restlessly

Intertwining with tickling

Rub of thumbs

I did not quite expect

That softness of

Saliva and skin and

I needed to practice

So we

Tried again

2.

I like breathing in spiced chai

And pondering the photographs

In a national geographic

Published last December

I like sitting next to you on

Andrea’s bed, dorm loveseats, that worn

Leather couch at All Saints,

Diner booths

I like the green of grass splattered

In patchy afternoon sun

That reminds me to

Live, and thrive

I like the delicate softness of your

One-freckled lips as they whisper

Thankfulness and joy in an hour’s

Worth of kisses.

these are my days

(Trying my hand at intentional enjambment)

These are my days

Opening my eyes to yours

Closed. Or to empty space when you’ve

Already gone 

To class, on the bus

Heaving fatigue, checking my phone.

Filing through facts, sifting

Responses, hearing my bright voice

Answer, leaving

Sun glare wind on skin.

Extending my long arm

To the heavy library

Doors, and voicing “hello

How are you” to that man I don’t

Know But speak

With every single day

without fault

Then bluntly and skillfully clacking

Scrap-smudged borrowed keyboards.

Blogging, analyzing, socializing,

Jeapordizing my joy

On a beautiful day,

I sit alone and read

Poetry and leaves

Of grass on the green.

And I leave.

On a bus,

Home to you.