How I Learned to Kiss, by Myra Shapiro

A movie actress taught me. She crept inside

a bed to warm a man who had a chill;

he was an outlaw but she had to

save his life, her body had to do that.

Her hair, her breasts, her vivid

darkened mouth opening towards him

made me ache for Saturday when I would

wet my lips, move forward

in the back seat toward the stranger

pressing close, breathing hard, insistent on

the power of a star.

From “I’ll See You Thursday” by Myra Shapiro (Blue Sofa Press: 66 pp., $10) Copyright 1997 Reprinted by permission.