And Then, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on Twitter)

With well intent
My younger sister did
Introduce me long ago

To her friend
To a billiard bar
We all went, talked

Failed bank shots
Scratches, nobody cared
We all drank, had fun

We discovered we
Both liked that band
That wanted to save paradise

That boiling hot river
Sang of cocaine addiction
And Krugerrands

Rack after rack
Our eyes kept meeting
I think off to the ladies room

My sister went
And then our lips met
Out of her sight

But when she came back
We were still at it
And then, she rolled her eyes

Get a room you guys
Well, we got done,
Paid the bill and left

And then
In the parking lot
We had to decide

What to do next
Sis offered her a ride
Back to her place

I think we both sat
In the back
Holding hands

And then, we got there
And she invited me in
Didn’t expect that at all

Excited and nervous
But trying not to show it
I must have stuttered “sssssuuuurreee”

And then, sis drove off
We went in
The kissing and hugging

Started again
I’d take any risk
To tie back, and then

She walked me over
To her computer
Booted it up, and then

She asked me
If I wanted to talk about Jesus
And then

My theatre lights
Went dark, and then
There was no rocking the paradise.
(end)

Based on a true story. My younger sister and I were adopted out to completely different families when I was a toddler. Fast forward almost 30 years to the mid 90s, I found someone who helped me find them. So one trip I took to visit my younger sister. She introduced me to her friend and we all went out to a billiard bar to play pool.

Now I do not consider myself a Brad Pit or Roger Moore looker. But I noticed she was eying me, couldn’t figure out why though. So we kept on talking about where we were from, what our lives were like and the things we were into, and her friend and I both like the 80s rock band Styx, which is where a lot of the references in this poem come from.

Anyway, so we hit it off, and start kissing, and my sister comes back probably thinking to herself “I need to get these two out of here”. So still a bit confused as to why we left so early , she offers her friend a ride home, and I was thinking that was going to be it.

Nope, her friend invites me in, and I do believe I said something stupid like “How am I going to get back to your house sis?”.

So we go in, the heat starts up again, then she stops me, and says something like “Before we go further”…….. Then proceeds to take me over to her computer. She boots it up, and back then some computers could take a minute or two. It seemed like forever. Wasn’t sure what she wanted to show me.

Now mind you, I would have simply been happy with the hugging and kissing and maybe watching tv or a movie considering it was a first date. But no, at the end of that old crackly dial up modem, a few clicks later she has me looking at an online bible. ……………………………CRAP! I wasn’t interested in dating a JW. That was it. I sat there politely and listened for what seemed a long while of preaching, tried to tell her it wasn’t my thing, she kept pushing a bit, so finally she called my sister and I left.

Not because she was religious, but I know a bible thumper when I see one, and she was a bible thumper. And again, it wasn’t that she didn’t put out, I would have been happy just with the hugging and kissing and cuddling. The fundy stuff that killed it for me.