Lover's Key, Florida

Lover's Key, Florida
I WILL FIND OTHER SEAS.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

MISSING THE KISSING


At least for me
one of the things that is missed
is the kissing—
think about it
at only two kisses per day
after 50 years
we’re talking about
close to 37,00 of them
and there were certainly days
when two kisses were just a beginning.

Will I ever forget
that first kiss
at her front door
the one that made me dance
all the way back to the car?

Then came the electric kisses
the hungry ones
that opened places in my heart
I didn’t know existed,
the passionate ones
that sucked the air out of my lungs
and put life into our love.

It was just one kiss
but it was sanctified
when it was OK
to kiss the bride.

Then that night
of the wedding
the sticky kisses
like the suction cup
that holds the Christmas Candle
to my window
lips touch slowly
not hesitantly
until they peel part
with regret
almost, it seems,
a cell at a time. 

She would say they made her weak
and dizzy
those kisses standing there
in our bedroom
dressed to kill—
or not dressed at all.

Maybe the best were the spontaneous ones
that just happened naturally
in the course of a day
for no reason at all
just a pleasant acknowledgment
of a gift not lightly accepted.

Although it happened every night
it could hardly be called ordinary
that peck on the cheek
or the lips 
with the words I love you
securely attached.

Those last kisses
when we knew there would soon
be no more
were the most precious
of all—
and,
finally, the kiss
on her cold lips
when she left the house
for the last time.

John A. Bayerl, March 22, 2012

Maybe it's the unseasonably warm weather we've been having that is hastening spring fever.  At times like this, how can someone who lost the person who made life make sense not be reminded of the simple sweetness of kisses exchanged in a life together?  Oh, those warm spring nights.  

It was a week ago that the tornado hit Dexter, ten miles from here.  Tonight it is once again clouding up and thunderstorms are in the forecast.  This is unheard of in this neck of the woods, but tomorrow I'm going to have to mow the lawn.  The good news about tomorrow is that Brooke will spend the day with me.  Work in the yard in the morning, then a movie in the afternoon.  

I've begun moving in the direction of meeting new friends.  I'll write more about that later when I kind of get things figured out a little better.  For now, it's enough for me to. like a turtle, carefully and cautiously poke my head out of my shell to see what's out there in the world.

The poem about kisses is all about you, Dear; how I miss all of it.

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