First Dates
11/28/2004 02:42 p.m.
The first time my sister and I
dated best friends
John, and Ron, can you believe it?
they chose the same day
and a weird way
to break up with us
after about a month

the guys were in a group, a duo,
just themselves
and they were indeed
we found out, really into themselves

but early on
in the happy stages
they loaned us some of their albums
of the more famous bands
rock ’n roll and even one
of a cousin’s of Ron's, in a well-known
local group gone big

I met John first, at school and he was
a brief and fumbling
initiation into having a boyfriend
not very pleasant or gentle-natured

but soon we introduced Ron and Marilyn
and brought them into our scene

good thing, because she and I
kept each other company a lot
watching those two perform
at gigs, or consoling
and encouraging each other
when they got too pushy
afterward, in the front and back seats
and we put on the brakes

poor John wasn’t in for much fun
anyway, with me
only fifteen
and soliciting advice on kissing skills
from my sixteen year-old sister
when he wasn’t looking
though she was a novice too

but when she and I we were apart from them
how we shouted to each other and giggled
at sudden sightings
of John’s blue volkswagen
and watched for it around town
knowing it meant the guys were near

within a month
she and I were on the verge of
giving up on our tempermental
hormone-plagued teen escorts
and hadn’t seen them in weeks
by the time they called up and met us
on our doorstep,
the pair, like Mutt and Jeff
just to request in united voice
their albums back

without spelling it out
they made it obviosu that half
of this group was pulling out
from us
(and we knew why)
They gave us quick brushes of kisses
and slunk away into that blue volks

though we’d already guessed it for the best
and were frustrated with their sexual pressuring
advances
and their irritated reactions
when things didn't go their way
my sister and I shed a few tears together
bought more of own music
and later, had a lot of laughs over it

the other day a friend of mine
invited me out to hear
the renowned local group from the past
with the frontman
whose cousin Marilyn dated
in that period of our lives
sending us into reminiscence

But we still shake our heads
and how difficult and strange they were

The next time my sister and I
dated two best friends
it lasted many years

I am currently Creative
I am listening to oldies Sentimental Journey with Dick Maloney