RSS 2.0 FeedAh, Paul
Free-wheeling cutup of 22,
a rage with the girls,
you suddenly surfaced
a new side towards me
at 15.
Your latest had a 15-year-old sister
so you coaxed me into a double date,
and I just knew she couldn't be cute
because no pretty 15-year-old girl
would want to date a clumsy adolescent boy like me.
But Oh God she was a delight to look at
and shy though I was
I was suddenly smitten
with legs of Jell-O
and struggled to conceal the curse of 15,
the ultimate embarrassment
of bulging pants.
You took us to an indoor roller-skating rink
where we had to wear rented shoe skates
with wooden wheels,
and I was terrified inside
because all I knew was the Union Number 5
steel skates that had screwed onto my school shoes
to race down concrete sidewalks and across asphalt streets
in the carefree years before I was 15.
But soon we held hands and skated side-by-side
sliding and gliding around the waxed floor
for what seemed like hours,
fantasized lovers at 15
never looking directly at each other
for fear of losing our balance,
and out of shyness, too,
until it was suddenly time to go.
Ah, Paul, I don't remember her name
and I never saw her again,
and though you teased me mercilessly
I never forgot the sweet warmth
of that special night
at 15.
Joe Glaser was a successful business technocrat who, upon retirement, morphed into a perpetual student of the liberal arts and sciences. No one was more surprised than he. A perceptive observer of human nature from many angles, Joe has discovered the power of poetry for sharing insights, emotions and humor. He also pursues candid travel photography and enjoys finding natural vignettes that display the human condition in interesting ways. He says it beats the hell out of working. His e-mail address: Joe Glaser