Kathryn Kysar
First Kiss
Amid the ransacking rumble
of semitrailers, we stumbled
the sloped hill of Pierce Butler,
the truck route near the train tracks.
Around small trees and large bushes,
weeds sticking in our clothes,
we half-slid to a secluded spot.
He knelt, pulled me down.
Facing each other, a light press
of lips, no more than a promise,
a signature on a blank page
in light blue ink that fades
in sunlight, a slight spray
of small flowers amidst gray clouds.
sk
“First Kiss” was first printed in Pretend the World, published by Holy Cow! Press, and appears in the 2013 Saint Paul Almanac.
Kathryn Kysar is the author of two books of poetry, Pretend the World and Dark Lake, and the editor of Riding Shotgun: Women Write About Their Mothers. She teaches creative writing, composition, and literature at Anoka-Ramsey Community College and lives with her family in St. Paul.