Home » Poems » Takudzwa Mashingaidze » The First, the Second and the Third

The First, the Second and the Third

The first time I lost a tooth,
I thought my world had ended,
See I had a crush at school,
So I had a lot of impressing to do…
I was six years old.
The first time she spoke to me, my crush,
Must have been the first time my heart learnt to dance,
I’m pretty sure it cracked part of my ribcage that day…
It was hardly a conversation though,
Starting with her asking if I had an eraser,
And ending with me just shaking my head,
Precisely five seconds…
I remember revisiting those five seconds
 For countless nights to come,
Reliving every second like
It was a drop of honey on a dry sour tongue; priceless!
The second time I had to experience
Such an encounter that left an immortal mark on my heart
I was fourteen,
My heart still navigating the intricate waters of passion, 
She was still blossoming into a woman,
Everything busting and curving its way into beauty,
This time, we were almost old enough to fake a conversation,
Useless questions and over drawn laughs to out of proportion jokes,
We were old enough to bond, 
But not old enough to make it last…

The third time our paths crossed,
I was already adrift in the wild shores of love,
I was on the verge of giving up
My heart was bruised too much to bleed for anyone else,
She was hesitant to trust a man, 
Life had thrown the worst at her heart,
Now she had shut it in walls,
But now we were both too mature to pretend
We were both tired of being anything but ourselves,
We let it be natural,
Our hearts floated on their own and they found each other,
I learnt that I never needed a tooth to impress her,
The same way she never needed an eraser to start up a conversation,
We just needed to be ourselves,
And love would connect us in eternal bond…

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