Spin the Bottle

Spin the Bottle

By Muriel Palanca

You
are
an IDIOT!
What were you thinking?!

When you kissed me, it felt like…
well…it felt warm
and a bit wet.

But then it felt like
chocolate chip cookies right out of
the oven, my favorite song coming on the
radio, the last dance at senior prom;
a slow dance, a prisoner seeing the azure sky
for the first time in nineteen years, finding a five leaf
clover, making a Hail Mary shot right before
the final buzzer, lightning turning
sand into glass, asphalt, trees,
periwinkle, blooming, Wonderbread, absolution,
mercy, free-falling, ninja turtles,
flaming horses, nimbus clouds,

Waves

crashing upon one another while
gently sweeping the shoreline, falling asleep
…exhaling, blowing out my birthday candles.

It felt like…I don’t know.
It felt like being torn,
 being free,
being brave.

It felt like falling in love.

And when it was over I felt like
a flickering streetlamp just before the breaking dawn,
like I found two snowflakes that looked identical right before they melted.
Most of all I felt like I caught
a glimpse of heaven
just out of my reach.

It’s ok though.
It’s not a big deal or anything, because you are still…an idiot.

And you suck at kissing.

But let’s do it again sometime.