The Kiss

Kiss – it opens the door of life, the first breath, the smell

of the newborn brought to the lips

for the first share of tastes. Breathing in birth and

hospital rooms, and sweat, and love tenderly

linked to this new life, the gift of a child

greeted with the first kiss.

Kiss – the tumble and peck, the eager lips,

the test of first tongue and groping

hands, of hickeys hidden or worn with pride, of

first-time mistletoe, spin the bottle, first boyfriend,

girlfriend, lover, lusting lurches toward the kiss.

Kiss - deep, long, lips pressed

seeking purchase in a moment of

invention. Love like a watch requiring winding

needs attention every day. Like a

metronome, won’t mark time until

it is released; undone from the clasp

its heartbeat starts at the kiss.

Kiss - breath hot, murmur at her throat, taste

of salt from skin to tongue, a hint of Chanel

makes breathing heady, like the texture of salt

winds at the shore; forced into lungs,

begun in the moment of the Kiss.

Kiss – a statement of arrival and departure, a

salute or wave shared by friends and comrades and couples

for life, no meaning to speak of only a touch

more intimate than a handshake. We notice unshaven faces

or the trickle of sweat; not marring the connection, only

sharing the instant of the kiss.

Kiss – a hand, finger tips, the inside

of a wrist, the crook of the elbow, the notch of bone

at the center of the neck, the back of the neck. Lips tucked easily

between the breasts of the woman, amidst the chest hair

of the man; taking in both scent and soft

simultaneously, stoked by the kiss.

Kiss – it begins a marriage, it ends an affair, it

pacifies an argument, it delays the inevitable, it swirls our

minds, it mends our hearts. It can raven up jealousy and

bring on sadness unknown before the witness of lovers, not

you, exchanging the kiss.

Kiss – it rests lightly on the cold paper-thin cheek of those leaving

home forever as homage to all they have been, and meant, and

felt, and shared, and carried, and offered even when refused for love

or for the want of it. It is paltry recompense for a life lived, well or poorly. Yet,

it is our final contact before the close of the lid. Does it communicate the

loss, the love, the life, the render, profoundly gifted to us. In its tender

goodbye, it is everything, it is nothing, it is finally the kiss.