Monday, June 06, 2005

Yet More Kisses

Still thinking about kisses. A friend pointed out "Kiss Me" (Sixpence None the Richer) which was one of the songs I had in mind when I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago. The song sets up all the singer's expectations about the environment--"you will wear those shoes, and I will wear that dress." Which makes me smile bemusedly about the incredible weight we can give to the simplest things.

Frank said of his first for-serious kiss: My mother was waiting in the car to drive me home. She must have talked. I probably responded. But a goodly portion of me was still on Laurie's back porch. I think maybe part of me still is.


I think part of us always stays with that first kiss--the kiss that makes you leave behind forever that schoolyard-cooties view of kissing. It marks a sea-change in the way we perceive the world and others. For me, that moment didn't happen until the first time I kissed another girl.

Ray, I'm blowing you a big friendly smooch right now.

Mommie4A said: Anyway - about the kiss you describe - I just watched Spanglish last night. Wasn't that thrilled with it but it's got a lot of pregnant with kisses moment. Those were my favorite moments in the movie. And Paz Vega -wow.

I really, really wanted to love Spanglish, and just couldn't. The pregnant-with-kisses moments were far better than the actual finally-realized kiss. Perhaps that was the whole point. The thing is, I just don't believe that's always true.

And an anonymous poster wrote: Kisses
You've reminded me of things I'd forgotten. Will I be able to make it go back to sleep now that you've awakened it? It's been such a long time gone.....

Which brought to mind a poem I read years ago.
Currently, these lines are running around and around in my brain:


You might come here Sunday on a whim.
Say your life broke down. The last good kiss
you had was years ago. You walk these streets
laid out by the insane, past hotels
that didn’t last, bars that did, the tortured try
of local drivers to accelerate their lives.
...

From Richard Hugo's Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg

We use kisses as memory-markers for the passage of time--our first kiss to our last good kiss.

So you see, .:J.r.A.:, it's all in the history, and how you remember. Kisses that surprise you are, perhaps, even better than the kisses you anticipate and hold your breath, hoping for.

And stop kissing people you don't really want to kiss.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"We use kisses as memory-markers for the passage of time--our first kiss to our last good kiss."

Mac- this is beautiful. It reminded me of a boyfriend that I never kissed goodbye. That relationship still hangs over my head like unfinished business. Not the love but the kiss that was needed to wrap it up, to say goodbye.

People don't think about kisses enough these days. There's a line from French Kiss, where Meg Ryan says something like " A kiss. A kiss is so intimate--two peoples' lips together, their breath a little bit of their souls..."

There's nothing like a good make-me-weak-in-the-knees kiss. :)
~Sara