Will-or-Won’t Power

By Ken Gosse

It seems so easy, this mystique,
if you’re a boy who likes a girl,
to place your fingers on her cheek
and give her hair a gentle twirl.

🩷🩷🩷

You see the sparkle in her eye
then slowly lift your other hand
to touch her other cheek. She’ll sigh—
that’s just the way she had it planned.

🩷🩷🩷

You turn your heads and touch your lips
while nervous hands and fingertips
find sensibilities eclipse;
as you move closer, hips find hips.

🩷🩷🩷

Eyes close, two hearts begin to race
as tongues leave every word behind
while each of you begins to trace
the new horizons that you find.

🩷🩷🩷

And yet, the first time’s hit or miss
since shyness may keep hands at bay—
sometimes, the moment of that kiss
will come, they hope, another day.

🩷🩷🩷

Ken Gosse usually writes short, rhymed verse in traditional forms using whimsy and humor. First published in First Literary Review–East in November 2016, since then in The Offbeat, Pure Slush, Parody, Home Planet News Online, Sparks of Calliope, and others. Raised in the Chicago, Illinois, suburbs, now retired, he and his wife have lived in Mesa, AZ, usually with cats and dogs underfoot, for over twenty-five years.