Joey Was Way Too Intense
Joey was way too intense.
He chased me on the playground when I was in first grade.
He caught me too; and I remember how intense he was.
He told the teacher he was going to marry me.
I was angry as hops! How dare this second grade stranger.
I could not believe it!
The nerve! The audacity! The ridiculousness!
What an idiot! I was only going to marry my Daddy.
I stayed away from him for years and years.
We became best friends when I was a freshman.
We parked at Lover’s Lane and smoked cigars,
Making fun of the lovers in the other cars.
Watching their steamed up windows, laughing at them.
When he went to college, my feelings changed.
He came back and we sat on some swings.
He began to talk about what he saw when he looked at me.
He saw children, a home, a family. I ran for a year.
After six months of college I appreciated the way he looked at me
Like a dog looks at a T-bone. I was looking at him back this time.
That was nineteen seventy; we were married in 1971.
We are still married fifty years later, and he still gives me puppy dog eyes.
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