When He Bites My Lip

I'd kissed all the boys
In my class
But he was the first boy
To bite my lip
As I was pulling away from him

I went back again
For another one
To see if he would do it again
And sure enough

There was breath
There were hands
And there was a soft bite
Like his teeth were telling me
Not to go

That's how I stopped kissing
All the other boys
And stuck to kissing him

He wasn't shy
About kissing me that way

In the hallway between classes
Dropping me off in front of my house
With my sisters watching from the window
On the altar with the priest dabbing his forehead
Because we decided to get married in the middle of July
With the air wet enough to wash clothes in

It was his way of making me laugh
Making me smile
Making me shut up

When I told him I wanted to move out of town
He gave me one of those kisses
And my lip was a little sore afterwards
Long after the argument
Was over

Then when I told him I wanted kids
He bit down hard and long enough
To make little dots of blood
Spill into my mouth
Making it taste wrong
Like salt and metal

Like all the things they tell you blood tastes like
At once

But anybody looking
Would just see a kiss

Just a man kissing his wife
Like he really loves her

And that's what it felt like
Even while it was busy
Feeling like something else

And when I asked him to stop seeing that women
He grabbed me by the waist
And pulled me in close

But this time I bit him
Before he could bite me
And I didn't let go
Until I saw the first tear
Coming down towards our melting lips

That was the last time we had one of those kisses

He must not have known
How hard
I could
Bite