we kissed in stairwells
we kissed behind bleachers
we kissed in the backrooms
of house parties
we kissed where no one
could see
or were too drunk for
judgment at all

because
there were
consequences for our
love

unlike the postcards of
blonde women with
their blonde men
instead of generic
pictures in new frames
we received
death threats

especially from your gun toting
father who threatened
to kill me for
kissing his son
in the driveway and then
flashed the muzzle of a magnum
at a high school sophomore
as he broke down
crying harder
than both of us
combined

I look back on all these moments
as if I were flipping through a
nostalgic book of days gone
but days somehow better

and even though boys beat us
in the locker rooms and
bullied us in front of teachers-

the memories bring a smile
still
yet it retreats into a frown
on nights spent toiling alone
and even worse
when thinking of where you have gone
where I am now
how would anyone know
we shared this passion
I sometimes forget
myself