My First Kiss

I wasn’t boy crazy, they didn’t make my young heart sing. Silly older girls might yearn for them, but they were not my thing. I had four older brothers, there was no mystery about them, And other than my brothers I could simply do without them. That was the situation when he took me by surprise. Buddy Cartright kissed me there in front of brothers’ eyes. I looked to see if Mama saw, I knew that she would scold And maybe box poor Buddy’s ears for acting out so bold. I don’t know if they egged him on or maybe paid a quarter. My brothers often did things that they surely hadn’t oughter. I feared that I would be in for a mighty lot of teasin’, And glared at Buddy just as though I thought he’d lost his reason. Buddy grinned a silly grin and was lookin’ sort of proud. There were lots of things I’d like to say but couldn’t say aloud. But do you know what happened? My brothers never teased me About Buddy being so obnoxious and that really should have pleased me. Buddy acted just the same and didn’t show that he was yearnin' To repeat the same audacious act that left my young cheeks burnin'. But I thought quite often of him and even of some others. Maybe not all the boys were like my own exasperating brothers. I watched as big girls flirted and were giggly and quite vain, And knew someday I'd like to have a boy kiss me again. For Frank Herrera’s contest “Your First Kiss, First Love, First Broken Heart.”