Love Can Bite

by Tom Horonzy

The year was nineteen sixty-two.
First day of the second semester.
Freshman year. Bishop Egan High.
Levittown, Pa. Lunchtime.

I transferred over the holidays.
Boys sat on one side of the cafeteria,
girls on the others. They looked alike.
Penguins in dress-code uniforms,
Hard to tell one from another.

Yet, as luck would have it,
I sat mere feet from the prettiest girl
separated by a three-foot abutment.
Her name was Chris and at first glance,
through to graduation, I dreamnt
she would eventually be my girl.

For three years, we chatted daily.
I toted her books to her bus.
Afterward, I'd thumb a ride,
smiling like a Chesire cat.
Better yet, Valentine's Day,
nineteen-sixty-five arrived,
a highlight of our years together.

As the dismissal bell rang,
she stood by her locker,
egging me ever nearer.
Then, with a wink, she lifted
the hem of her uniform,
above her knee, showing me
the base of her pantaloons,
arrayed with a field of hearts.

I felt like Pepe Le Pew finding love.
My heart pounded. It tried to escape
while she and friends shimmied away.
I attempted to catch a breath of air
while standing in a puddle of sweat.
The climax to an imaginary romance.

For every high comes a low,
arriving with a should-have-known,
expected, temporary breakup.
She agreed to meet at a game.
The weather was rotten.
A cold rain was falling, and
as I entered the stadium
in a Bobby Vee sweater,
Snidely Whiplash stood ahead,
with my first and never-be date,
convincing her of mercy's virtue.
They strolled away hand-in-hand.

Disappointed and soaking wet
I ventured to the confectionary
across the street, laying my cardigan
on an ice-cold ice cream chest.
An hour later, feeling somewhat dry,
I lifted my then-frozen-stiff sweater,
lowering my indignation even lower.
I thought I would never feel worse,
and I haven't, but learned "love can bite."

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Love Bites writing prompt entry

Writing Prompt
Write a poem about love gone wrong or lost love. It can be sad, raw, or just plain angry (Just keep it clean). Express the emotions of the darker side of love. Any style or length. Be creative.

Post Number 200
A Milestone Post

Snidely Whiplash was Dudley Do-Right's nemesis in a cartoon made for teevee.
Pepe Le Pew was also in cartoons as a lovelorn skunk who fell in love with a black cat that had a white stripe painted down its back.
Photo of a student with permission by the author.

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Love Can Bite

by Tom Horonzy

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