Short Thoughts on Kissing

INSTRUCTIONS FOR KISSING-

Our lips should be embarrassed by our brains-

                                                    "Should I"

                                                               "What if”

                                                                        "If only"

Kissing comes with just one instruction- "No Over-thinking Permitted"

CONDITIONAL RELEASE-

Many lips are like prisoners of war who are conditionally released at Christmas.

Their assignment: "Find mistletoe, then wait there for the others."
Why do so many lips return to confinement rather than risk meeting?

HARD LABOR-

Today my lips were captured… captivated…sated. I cannot send them back to their former sentence of either solitary confinement or hard labor-

• Hard labor- antiseptic air kisses that should be arrested and charged with "impersonating a kiss"
• Hard labor- sterile obligatory kisses on the cheek or, inappropriately, the lips
• Hard labor- lying, reassuring, "of-course-we-are-still-in-love" kisses

MISTLETOE KISS

From your purse you draw red satin ribbon, a sprig of berries and leaves. You tape it above the archway of the dining room. The pathway to your heart.

            You stand beneath it, unselfconscious, unhesitant. You await me, 
             hands clasped behind, eyes closed, lips parted. 

Your stillness quiets me even as your heat draws me. Our lips fulfill the promise of mistletoe and of love.