.10 kiss

"it started out with a kiss,
how did it end up like this?
it was only a kiss-
it was only a kiss"

...goes the killers' iconic anthem.

and it is only a kiss, right?

no big deal.


we kiss.
we kiss few,
we kiss often.

and yet
each
one
different.

different for the person,
different for the circumstance,
different for the feeling.


the kiss of the lover, between the sheets.
the kiss of the friend, cheek to cheek.
the kiss of the distant, at the end of a letter.
the kiss of the minder, to make it all better.
the kiss of the leaving, blown through the air.
the kiss of the comforter, so as not to despair.
the kiss of the parent, upon their child.
the kiss of the traitor, not so mild.


it was only a kiss?


come on,
honestly,
when was the last time that you thought about counting the kisses at the end of that text?
or that you suddenly became aware that they pecked you on the cheek the last time you said goodbye to them?
or that it - wasn't reciprocal?
or that it was?


maybe something that is so easy to give,
shouldn't carry such weight.

maybe we can never know;
maybe it's all in our head.


a kiss, for you, might be precious, might be symbolic, might be sweet.

but like all sweet things, it might also possibly be twisted, warped, rewritten, with the wrong who and when and where and why
making it
less sweet.

sour, in fact.

still, only a kiss?


and maybe there are times when it should be refused, avoided.
and maybe there are times when it should be given more freely.

and maybe the whether of the question
is completely irrelevant
because regardless of what it is physically
how short or lengthy
moist or dry
the pressing on flesh
of an orifice from which springs
speech
and song
and eating
and breathing
and emotive expression,

regardless of any of that,

it is only a kiss.


instead, ask,
it is the kiss of who?

because it could end up like this, or this, or this.

is it the kiss of the committed who keeps it only for you-
or from the betrayer with soldiers ready at the door?


all i'm saying is,

i hope you know.
and that who knows too.


because if that's not the case,
then,

it might not be


only a kiss.


x