KISSING BETTER.

A BOY AND GIRL IN A NURSING HOME IN 1950S

Anne rubs
her leg stump
to ease pain

Skinny Kid
watches her
sitting there

in the black
old wheelchair
can I help?

he asks her
kneeling down
best not Kid

if the nuns
are watching
they'll be here

like black bats
at dusk time
Anne says

the Kid stares
as she rubs
the leg stump

still painful?
he asks her
yes it is

she replies
kiss it Kid
kiss the stump

he studies
the fleshy
stump of leg

will it help?
sure it will
she suggests

looking up
at the home
where the nuns

nursing nuns
are at work
other kids

play about
swings and slide
coast is clear

kiss it now
she whispers
he puckers

his small lips
and kisses
the leg stump

Anne laughs
get off Kid
you're tickling

making me
piss myself
he removes

his small lips
from her stump
well done Kid

that's better
the pain's gone
looking up

she sees there
across grass
rushing close

a young nun.

Reviews

[Kelly Scheppers]

My mother once told me that nuns had eyes in the back of their heads...they see everything, even things we don't think they can! {...she went to Catholic school }

Your closing lines have a way of gripping this reader every time! And even though I recall the awkwardness at the first sight of seeing my mother's stump after her first amputation, I felt a gentleness to your words that put me in a relative calm. You just have that way about you.

[Terry Collett]

Thank you, Kelly.

[Jamestown]

I really don't know what to think of this piece, I will say well written for sure,
Well it is very kind of the young lad to try to ease the young ladies pain, but
at the same time the imagery that accrues is just odd settling
in my head, who knows maybe I'm the oddball! Thanks for sharing and b-blessed!

[Terry Collett]

Thank you, Jamestown. Sometimes the writer has an image in his head which fails sometimes to convey it to the page.