Never Been Kissed

- ONE -

                                                                    

                                                                        -• ONE •-

 

I sat in the homemade swing under the large peach tree in the park, watching my little sister, Opal, frolic in the shallow end of the lake with her friends while their swimming instructor tried to get them to settle down enough for her to show them the freestyle stroke.

Just another normal summer day in Starbuck, Minnesota.

With a smile I returned to the pages of the blue lined notebook that sat in my lap and looked over my scratchy handwriting to get some point of the poem I was writing. Not that it could be called a poem, it didn’t make much sense. But that was art for you.

                                                   We watch the birds fly in the sky;

                                                  We watch the clouds filter on by;

                                Without cause to answer who clock worked such things

                                             A natural cry, the scheme such brings.

                                           We don’t need knowledge to understand,

                                        That sometimes some things go unplanned.

                                               Thus causes us to ask or plea:

                                           Are you missing out, or is it just me?

I looked up from my words, not sure what to make of them. They’d been a spur of the moment thing that I’d scribbled down in the notebook while I waited for Opal’s swimming lesson to finish. In a way, I wondered if the poem made me question my own self.

“’Are you missing out or is it just me?’” I quoted myself, my voice coming out scratchy from not speaking for so long.

I closed the notebook and reached for my bag that lay beside my foot on the lush green grass. I propped it in my lap, and placed the blue, spiral bound notebook into it, brushing my cell phone with my fingers. I looked over the display and frowned.

No texts. No missed calls. No nothing.

Well, I should be used to it, seeing that I’d never been the best with people. But still, seeing a blank screen kind of irked me. I wrinkled my nose and threw the plastic contraption back into my bag.