the race from the schoolyard to the classroom

in my well-worn canvas sneakers

seemed as far apart as the sweltering Sonoran Desert

to the cool San Francisco breeze

 

high-pitched screams drowned out faint giggles

and three-year-old girls bumped into one another

like a litter of puppies, tripping on their toes

in an attempt to escape the blond hair, blue-eyed

beast

 

derailed from safety, and detained behind the fence

I was captured, singlehandedly by

the kissing bandit

 

he pressed his purple popsicle-stained lips against mine, 

wiped off his sticky, sweet, smiling mouth,

and headed back to the playground,

while I stood flushed

from my very first kiss