Kissing Lessons - Lucy Dacus

Rachel was a year older

When I was in the second grade

I thought she might know everything

I took her word like a golden ring

I asked her how to win my man

And she said, «I know just the thing»

Gave me lipgloss and a hair toss

And, after school, a lesson in kissing

She called me by the name of a crush

I couldn’t decide if she was Cole or Justin

I think I called her baby or darling most the time

We’d take turns being seduced

Imagining the day it would come into use

Imagining the day we’d start breaking hearts

And taking names

She wanted a three-story house

I wanted to live by a body of water

With my children and their father

Children and their father

Three sons and a beautiful daughter (Oh)

Rachel’s family moved out of town

I don’t remember when we stopped hanging out

But I still wear a letter R charm on my bracelet

And wonder if she thinks of me as her first kiss