Strange Occasions

the first time
was...surprising
i was amish
and i had twelve cousins
to share the happy
though unlucky
day with

i had a dress on which
the smell of mold
and old age hung

i was disgusted
with the way my life was heading

so i told him that i wouldn’t
and the CIA
came to bring cosmetics
in an ambulance

the second time
i was at least nineteen

i think

our church house had a chapel
i had never seen before

i didn’t know that it was possible to fit
a whole cathedral in there

i had nothing special on
but a white top hat and
my mother’s old teal pillow
which I wrapped around my arm

i was nervous, and so every boy
in the whole world came
to ask me to my face
if i was sure

he had a trench coat
and a big hat on
so i saw nothing but his neck

afterward i talked with my cousin
and a guy that looked
just like him
about a new moon and a story
outside of the cultural hall
that was really a Venetian lake

then we the couple
caught a bus

a crowded one

it was raining
and he wouldn’t do
so much as turn around
and speak to me

the next time
we met in the hall
at school
and i kissed him first

the people whistled
and that was all
the ceremony that was needed

quite amazing, really
how easy it can be sometimes...

number four
was to a secret agent
i am not at liberty
to tell the rest...

for the fifth
i found myself
once again at school
there was to be an assembly
and i had never met him

(in the end i never did)

my sister and i
had our dresses picked
i could hardly see
through layered sheers
silk roses were everywhere

they were kind of
annoying

everyone was so excited
as they talked to us
in the lunchroom
over pizza
this had never happened before
in a place like this

i was excited too
but nervous again
i hoped it was not—
well, i'm not sure who

and that wasn’t the last

i could continue…

Harry Potter…

Romeo…

Some boy in my
fourth hour class…

a nameless prince
that lived in a diner
and made me wear
a blue and yellow dress
of sports mesh
with ruffles…

(i looked like marie antoinette
the soccer player)

not to mention Leonardo

TWICE!

i have never been so
disgusted with myself
as when i stood as mrs…

dicaprio…

at the age of twenty
and then two years later
at thirteen

i have had enough
of these strange occasions
and pray the real thing
does not turn out
so frightening

or so frequently

i may never sleep again
for fear