A new poem for the Kaidravuni Poetry archive!

First Date

In retrospect
It was an anticlimax
But I couldn’t have done it any other way
I didn’t know how

I finally got the courage
To ask a girl out to the movie – for the first time
Mid-way through secondary school
Coming from a family
Where anything to do with the opposite sex was taboo
This was unprecedented courage

We arranged rendezvous at the Suva bus station
For Saturday matinee at the Lilac Theatre
Afterwards
It would be back to the same station
For au revoir
Period
That was the extent of my date

Simplicity – it may be
But
I soon got the jitters
My courage flew out the window
In the last minute
I invited a cousin – to be a chaperon
He agreed without a hint of a second thought

He would not be so much a chaperon – in the strictest sense of the word
I would ensure propriety on my part
And my date would too
But
From bus station to bus station
There would be hours-long of speech bubbles to fill
I panicked of being tongue-tied
I opted thus
For safety first

In retrospect
I didn’t even get to hold her hands
In the close intimacy of the cinema!

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