POETRY
Bookstore Love
Lessons Learned
But for the trouble I was in,
I wasn’t supposed to volunteer
at a bookstore on a Saturday morning.
Mom encouraged me to learn
responsibility and Dad,
looked at a magazine, told
me to listen to my mother.
Such a bitchy move.
I came home an hour
past curfew because
my phone got Erin wet
and died before we realized
it was after our bedtime.
We moved to the front-row seats
and threw on our clothes
and left the cornfield.
Erin fixed her hair
in the rearview mirror
My parents didn’t buy it.
I wouldn’t have either.
Mom rested her hands on her hips
and took a whiff of me.
She closed her eyes and sighed,
begging God to undo
the original sin of young love.
Janna, my aunt, owned the store,
and was an angry person.
Maybe she needed a dose
of what Erin and I shared.
I’d have let her in on what she was missing.
But not even love could cure her addiction
to apathy.
I loved her because God told me to.
The more time I spent around Janna,
I noticed a change in her.
Janna saw Erin and me together, holding hands.
Janna started doing her hair, doing her makeup,
and wearing clothes that would attract men her age.
Janna softened as she found love on a dating site.
She married two years later.
Today, Janna’s the happiest woman I know.
And it all started with an innocent sin.
Mom knew that if Janna saw Erin
and my innocent love, it would speak
to her heart like nothing else could.
Lessons learned.
(© 2024 AC.)
(Amazon Kindle, Spillwords, The Writers Club)
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