Everyone knows
If you want to get good at something,
It takes practice.
All of us teens
Wanted to be good at kissing.
So we needed to practice
Finding someone
To practice with, however,
Proved difficult
The girls I knew appeared to have
These things called ‘standards’,
And I was, clearly, substandard —
But I eventually got over it
Or some few lowered their standards
Or both
At any rate, kissing
Is like everything else:
You’ve never done it until you do it
The first girl who I kissed
More than once was
Looking for a practice partner as well
So we met places, in my car or
At her house and
Practiced
At some point, we realized that
We didn’t particularly like each other
All that much, so that was that
(Now, at this point, I realize
Other people have stories like this about
Practicing more advanced forms
Of physical intimacy at the same age,
But I do not.
This was my actual life.)
I went on from there to have
My first real date, my first real love,
And so on
Learning, as I went, that are
At least one hundred other things
As important in a relationship
And that also take practice
