Tonight's Poet Corner: Just For Kicks

Just For Kicks
by Belinda Roddie

She's new in town. Red heels,
long skirt, big lips and all swish
and sway. She drinks a rum and coke
and bites down hard on the straw when
I get too close for comfort. She says that

a dance costs a drink and a kiss
costs a kick in the shin, then swivels
on her stool back to her friends,
leaving me winded and gasping
for colder, cleaner air. I try to

swish her and sway her, but
my gyrations are clumsy, my hips
scraping against wood and metal
and leaving bruises. She's not impressed.
She sucks the remaining dregs of sin
from her glass, stands up,
and leaves me aching. Just because

someone is new in town, of course,
doesn't mean that she's meant for me.