Nasty-Filthy-Dirty Things
When I was six years old, and Ruthie Tanner was seven, my momma caught us coming out of the cornfield across the road. She got upset and accused us of doing nasty-filthy-dirty things. I didn't know what those things were, except that they had something to do with our private parts.
After that, I learned about nasty-filthy-dirty things from grownups who whispered about them with an intense glow in their eyes, flushed faces, feverish lips, heavy and irregular breathing, and sweat oozing from their pores.
By the time I turned sixteen, and impatient hormones had taken control of my every thought, I behaved just like grownups. I whispered and snickered about nasty-filthy-dirty things with an intense glow in my eyes, a flushed face, feverish lips, heavy and irregular breathing, and sweat oozing from my pores.
And I would have given my life for a girl who would have done nasty-filthy-dirty things with me like Ruthie Tanner and I were supposed to have done out in the corn field across the road when I was six years old, and she was seven.
Copyright © 1995, 2021 Frank Zahn. Published in
Meat for Tea: The Valley Review Volume 15, Issue 3 Creek (September 2021), p. 133 -http://www.meatfortea.com/pdfs/meatforteav15i3.pdf.