A Kiss

A kiss is a promise.
What kiss? How is this?
Any kiss. Every kiss that ever was kissed.
The kiss never kissed and the kiss often missed.

A kiss and a hug to a coworker at work,
Whom you've known for ages in the corporate murk,
But, sadly, never thought of as else but a cog,
Till a kiss and a hug left you both all agog.

A kiss, and a hug, for an actor back stage,
On opening night! When the stage is arage.
All the world is a stage full of frenetic energy,
You can't keep it in. How else could it be?

A lovers' kiss! Well. There's romance aplenty.
And comedy and farce and giggles. And mystery.
That kiss is electric, from lips down to toes,
And up again, by diverse paths. Where the electricity flows.

So, a kiss is a promise. A promise of what?
Some future boon? Sex? Love? Friendship? Yes, but?
But a tender embrace called life that ne'er ends,
The best kisses have all. Lovers. Companions. Friends.

And something else. Other worldly and eternal,
Kisses don't exist in time. Well, not today, truth tell.
If a kiss is a promise from where does it hail?
The future, ours waiting; the strong and the frail.

Come to me, says she. I have more to give,
If life's about living. Then. Come. Live.
Every kiss you take is a lure and a hook.
Every kiss you make is a fish in the brook.

Every brook, every lure, every hook, every fish,
Ends. As it began. As a hope and a wish.
For you, my lover, or pal, or friend,
Hand in hand, to the future. May we kiss without end.