It hurts

admiring my elongated self
wiry legs stretched across asphalt
mirrored dance moves that make me smile
a little robot     some running man
having way too much fun to pay attention to the curb
how it reaches out to grab my foot
I often contemplate my darker half
but becoming so intimate wasn’t planned
He quickly ran at me     so abrupt
shrinking along the way
first, it was an awkward elbow-bump
the kind of greeting that happens when both parties acknowledge
We have dirty hands
from there we go to the hardest high-five ever
who high-fives with a handful of gravel? 
I’d hoped that was the end of the salutations
but momentum and gravity felt otherwise
The kiss was a bit much    lips crashed together
like when two people have been skirting around sexual tension for years
and after divorce and dead spouses     find themselves
in a hotel bar     no wall of guilt or impending regret
teeth clanked     noses crunched     foreheads bouncing off
skirts hiked up     trousers caught on thighs
Seconds later and he’s all Wow, I’ve waited years for this!
And she’s God, I’ve waited years for this?
I must say     I’m on her side
laid-out on the blacktop     little stones embedded in my palm
throbbing pain in my elbow     scratches
on my nose and forehead     not to mention
how we banged our knees together
All this from my partner     my compadre
all the times we danced together     ran around chasing each other
made finger animals on the wall     barking dog, anyone?
and finally     we embrace
and it’s all bloody lips     bruised elbows
and a possible chipped tooth

Jason Melvin received a gimmicky T-shirt from his teenage daughter on Christmas with a picture of one large fist fist-bumping a much smaller fist. The caption read, “Behind every smart-ass daughter is a truly asshole Dad”. It fit.