The Conquest

by Tom Horonzy

Memories come a dime a dozen,
but there are a few that etch indelibly.
One of mine began in January nineteen sixty-two.
It lingers today as fresh as a newly blossomed daisy.

I was fourteen, a freshman in a new school.
Our family had moved midterm from Jersey to Pa..
Anyway, I ended up sitting at a table
nearest the girl's side of the cafeteria,
separated by a two-foot thick vertical column.
The two genders were segregated.
This was a catholic school.

Catty-cornered from me
was the cutest girl in the whole world.
Chris was the first girl I ever noticed differently.
I think because I was the sole boy
in a clan of six kids. Girls at the time were icky!

Her flaxen hair radiated sunbeams
that poured through the skylight.
She had a warm smile and an inviting laugh.
I felt to be in the presence of an angel.
I said the same to my new friend Jack,
who just happened to be, unknowingly, her brother.
That's how I came to know her name.

It took me a week to say "Hi."
I wouldn't be the same thereafter for three-plus years.
If I had been a dog,
when she responded alike,
my tail would have wagged at red-line rpms.
My palms got sweaty.
I spilled my drink, then blushed,
yet didn't care, for at that moment,
I had died and entered heaven.

I became more enamored, entranced,
and inappropriately captivated at that second
which lasted until graduation three years later.
Maybe Thumper felt alike meeting Miss Bunny?

I wish I could tell tales of success,
but instead confess we never held hands,
went on a date or shared a kiss.
I worshipped from afar,
even while knowing she had a beau
who was older and owned a car.

She never rejected my advances
nor accepted them.
I believe she only thought me a friend
until my senior year
when on Valentine's Day,
she coyly lifted the hem of her uniform,
showing the lowest portion of bloomers
that were spotted candy-red hearts,
causing me to enter cardiac arrest.

Sixty years later, I confess
Christine opened my heart, mind, and spirit
giving clarity
Lord Tennyson's words:
"Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all."

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Precious Memory contest entry

I graduated at seventeen. Never had a car. Never had a date. I entered the service, before ever being kissed until when laying sick an unfamiliar face visited and left me with a kiss. It wasn't Chris!

The picture is my wife, who I met in college. I was twenty-seven. She had a like effect on me, as did my teen angel, but all the things I missed back then happened eventually.

I originally released this in story form until a reviewer was kind and told me the contest was to be poetic; therefore this finished work is as expected.

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She Came, I Saw and Was Conquered

The Conquest

by Tom Horonzy

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