The Cedar Tree
a flash of light ...
thunder clapped like cannons as
into the old tree
we scurried ...
the mouth of its little
hollowed-out gut, yawning like some
tired old man from a Dickens story ...
perhaps the chin of the
ghost of Jacob Marley, let loose in
horrid fashion from its
binding bandages ...
the soft pine-needle
floor of the space inside was
long enough to lay down on,
but not very wide,
so we squeezed together like shoes
in a box, rain pouring all the more,
and dripping off the scarred
cedar bark onto her coal-black,
jasmine-scented tresses -
damp ponytail resting coyly
on my bared shoulder ...
what now?
I could tell we both thought,
and the question hung in awkward
silence between us,
rain pattering like mice on a tin roof,
her almond Taiwanese eyes
looking at me for reassurance,
though I had no more experience than she in such situations ...
still, I crimped the edges of my
mouth up in the gentle attempt at a smile,
and she returned it, eyes
sparkling with a "yes" ...
odd, that we had
barely reached our teens,
for what came after that first shy, testing,
cotton-candy kiss, played out like
some grand romantic movie
on the big screen,
becoming a magical dance of
confusion and excitement,
and frightened, fumbling flesh -
a rain-spattered, dreamy
interplay of limbs that
seemed to hold time in its place …
'til we emerged hours later into
the golden glow of dusk,
covered in soft scratches and pine needles,
in a sweet post-passion delirium,
and quietly walked home,
(in different directions),
through the dimming mist,
never to speak of it …
again ...
well …
she moved away with her
family not long after, and though we had
promised each other to
stay in touch, I only received one post
card from her months later,
telling me about a boy she'd met,
and how they'd kissed on
their first date ...
as if what had taken place in
that old tree, deep in the
woods that rainy July afternoon,
was no more than a lark -
no more than a dream or charm or
thistle on the breeze ...
except ...
it WAS more ... for me
it was the most REAL thing -
the most tender thing,
the most precious
and sweet
and life-changing thing ...
it was the most fearfully beautiful,
most wonderfully frightening,
most exquisitely complicated thing,
that I have ever, ever ...
known.
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