by Leslie Monsour: 'This Kiss'

Note: I love this poem by my Scripps College classmate Leslie Lasher Monsour, & often recite it.

This Kiss

This kiss is getting less and less platonic.

What tasted plain has started to taste sweet.

And yes, I’ll have another gin and tonic

To calm my nervous hands and this demonic

Appetite each time we part or meet.

This kiss is getting less and less platonic.

Our eyes have started flashing supersonic

warnings, lest we feel inclined to cheat --

And, yes, I’ll have another gin and tonic.

I’ll try to countermand my histrionic

urges to go swooning at your feet.

This kiss is getting less and less platonic.

I wish I felt a little less sardonic

at my age to try turning up the heat. 

And yes, I’ll have another gin and tonic;

Perhaps it will establish a harmonic

rhythm to my heart’s unnerving beat.

This kiss is getting less and less platonic.

And yes, I’ll have another gin and tonic.