the playboy of the eastern world- gerald locklin

[somethingvague7]

as a child he was only once invited to
a party at which everyone played spin the bottle.
there was one little girl there
that he thought he was in love with
and another that was cute.
the rest ranged from plain to ugly.

he was afraid he could discern a sigh of relief
whenever a spin by one of the desirable little
women inched its circumferential way past him.
it didn't seem to matter to them
whom else they ended up with,
and they and their partners
were always gone, behind closed doors,
for quite a while.

his own spins ran the gamut of the other contestants.
he didn't really want to kiss any of them,
but his mother has drummed into him
never to hurt other people's feelings.
in the other room the plain ones had no intention
of settling for anything perfunctory,
and the truly ugly ones seemed convinced
that advanced foreplay was the key to swanhood.
when he got home, he went straight for the lavoris.

forty years later he found himself invited
to a similar but upgraded diversion
and once again all the beauties left with someone else
but this time he had reached for the bottle
well in advance
and he was quite content to settle
for someone who was glad to be with him.