My First Kiss
Today I was thinking
About my first kiss
It’s really hard for me
Because it was so long ago
And to be brutally honest
Drugs
Have taken their toll
On what is left of my memory
It was back in the time
Of building hot rods
And cruising Main Street
Which for me was Chester Ave. in Bakersfield, Calif.
I was perhaps 13
Cruising the strip
With a buddy of mine named Warren
Though his last name eludes me
Lost forever in the archives of dust
At 13 I looked 18 which was a good thing
Because the girls we met
Bordered 18
And I do remember
That I was scared to death
One girl was ok
The other was, “Oh my God”
BEAUTIFUL
And I latched onto her
Like a junkyard dog
Does a thief in the middle of the night
And the one girl rode with Warren
In his car
And I rode with the other
In her car
And I suggested we drive
Out to Hart Park
We all sat together
Drank some beer
Smoked some pot
Then her and I walked
Down by the Kern River
Near the spot where I
Had watched my Mother drown
And I told her the story
And there in the moonlight
Lost in the beauty
Of her eyes
She ask, “How old are you anyway”
I wanted to say 18
I wanted to lie
But she was so beautiful
That all I could say
Is that I was 13
I expected her to get so mad
But instead
She asked,
“Have you ever even kissed a girl”?
The answer was
“No”
And as burnt out as my memory is
I will never forget
The mischievous look
In those beautiful eyes
Like a lioness
About to pounce on her prey
How her lips
Seemed as soft as a cloud
And her skin
Was like nothing I had ever touched
And she took me away
To a place I had never been
She taught me
How to love
Far beyond my years
And through all the years
Known as the hell of my life
She is the only person
I only knew for a minute
That I could never forget
Written for John's Contest.
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