The taste of red wine and dark chocolate

Swirlin’ together inside my mouth is

Like smoke escaping from the chimney

Of a log cabin in the depths of a Louisiana swamp

On a humid summer night

When you can feel the breeze

Brush across your skin

And lift the tendrils of hair that rested

Lightly above your breast, and you wanna giggle But you can’t because you’re playin’ hide and seek

And you don’t wanna be found by your best friend,

And yet you do

Because she’s the only person

In your world

Who will understand

When you explain

Your goose bumps.

Jenny Sullivan teaches English and Creative Writing at Union High School in Tulsa. Her three-part narrative, “Hook, Line and Stringtown,” appeared in This Land in 2011.

Originally published in This Land, Vol. 3, Issue 23, Dec. 1, 2012.