the note:
(5thGrade) to a Miss Wendy Wayne , whom I gazed at relentlessly for a period spanning three years. She was utterly beautiful, blazingly fast, and did back-handsprings during recess. I joined her. One day, when the ardor became too much, I decided to declare what everyone could see. I would confess my love and seek her response. When everyone was out of the classroom on a break, I snuck back into class to place the “woo-note” in her desk. I’d prepared it the night before, diligently decorating it with many hand-colored flowers. I even brought along a little necklace, pillaged from my sister. After checking to see that all my classmates were gone, I pulled a book from her desk to insure the right place (We had switched desk spaces that same day.) Wendy’s notebook was right on top. I placed the note in the desk and left with a thudding heart.
The next morning, Girls in the hall began to snicker. Outright laugh. Then one girl, who knew me and was kind, came up and queried: Kirk, did you really mean to give that note to Wendy Harnage?
Wendy HARNAGE! Oh dear, . NO OHHHHHHH No…
no owhat a jerk…that note that was for Wendy Wayne .
Dear Wendy
I love you. Do you love me?
Check box yes or no.
Soon after, and against my protests, my protector (who was experienced in the stuff of fifth-grade romance negotiations) declared she would Go to the two Wendy’s and correct all. The incorrect-Wendy took the news well and even granted me the privileged status of “a friend who is a boy but not my boy-friend”
As for the most beautiful girl in-the-word-Wendy, all she said was :
Go to Hell.
Porcelain Girl
(In honor of Cindy O., now Cindy E.) ‘84
Simple
Clean,
gentle luster
Muted line,
(a model for the master’s brush)
With the firm – fragile of a fine china vase,
Stark attending soft.
Strands of flaxen brown fall
still,
Down,
Delicate on ivory.
(A fresh stirring within.)
She stands lovely
In the force of sculpted line,
Flowing
Taunt,
then eased
In splendid turn.
(I stand a bit enchanted)
Whispers wash
across her neck
Hair in dull illumine,
THEN,
Treads of fire - Catching
In the setting day.
Her eyes:
A coral sea, ablaze
In Tropicana’s heat
Emerald and aqua
A Dancing spark.
Her eyes:
A Nordic sea,
Silent in the mist,
Forrest with iceberg,
A quiet storm.
Our eyes search – share secrets.
Note: My wife upon review wonders just what secrets our eyes shared. Well … her right eye said to my left eye…Let’s just be friends. But while her right eye was busy her left eye blinked. Which in turn, did look rather like a full affirmation of “our” love.
Half-baked (Cathy S. now Cathy J.) ‘84
Cotton Cathy, cornbread and cream
You would be my life-long dream.
(Sorry Cathy for calling you some twenty times in a row one night when you didn’t answer the phone. Who was I to know that you were sick in bed and ignoring me! Boy was I embarrassed.)
Equinox (Karen H. now Karen B.)/85
Fall entered in
overnight,
to both wind and heart.
It came
the passenger
of a great gray motorcade,
A mass
born of equal-night, and artic high.
It came with rain
At the beckon of our Lord,
to the trees of our Lord,
and man.
It came with chill
etching
dusted leaf
and breath.
And though the trees
have yet to flame,
My heart is warmed in anticipation
of
spiced cider, mittens,
wool color, and
and our eyes.
(Thanks Karen for giving me my first taste of requited love. Undoing a heart that had started to graft with yours hurt as much as anything in life. But I would not trade the work God did through you, for me, for anything.)
The eye-man strikes again. – to Dianne W. now Dianne L. /88
Tangerine, ruby, and fire:A frame for the forestHe poured in your eyes.
(Thanks D. for refusing my kiss, it made friendship that much easier, and I can look your husband in they eye.)
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