Yesterday, after heavy rains, I went for a long walk. I kept hearing opera music and I looked around to see a man grinning at me and nodding from his car, where the windows were open and the volume turned way up. I laughed and waved back at him, and the below poem leaped up into my mind. My grandmother, whose life was extraordinarily hard, used to recite it to us with an unfamiliar lilt in her voice. 

Then, late last night when I was putting together this post, I scrolled through my sent-poem files and found notes between me and two old friends from 2006, when I first sent out this poem. From Norma Fox Mazer: Yeehaw! You should send this one out at least once a year! From Phebe Hansen: Yay for love! xxoo. I loved Norma and Phebe. Both are gone now, but their smiles and laughter and bright eyes leaped up from their words on the screen into my mind, full of life, just like this poem.

Jenny Kissed Me
            – Leigh Hunt

Jenny kissed me when we met,
    Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
    Sweets into your list, put that in;
Say I’m weary, say I’m sad,
    Say that health and wealth have missed me,
Say I’m growing old, but add,
    Jenny kissed me.

For more information about Leigh Hunt, please click here.