he rang her on the phone
a day after their first kiss
little boy innocent
his bass weejun toe
swishing back and forth
in the softest playground gravel
of their lives
to say
he had developed a bad cold
since last seeing her
and hoped he hadn’t passed it along
she smiled
wrapping herself
in the long ago
avocado phone cord
of her teenage memories
and enthusiastically replied
that she hoped he did
because
it would be
the sweetest case of the sniffles
she ever suffered through
nose swollen
in love and
red eyed