3WW: Drip, Hypnotic, Sulk

Berlin High School Junior Prom 1966

My Prom date
was such a drip.

Tall, skinny, and blond,
not even cute.

Tongue-tied and sweaty
he held me loosely

while we danced
to horrible band music

that floated around us
in cracked notes

then got stuck in tissue-
paper roses.

His eyes were hypnotic
in their blue blankness

and zombie-like I followed
his shuffling steps

all that boring night,
all the way to 11 o’clock

when we left and went
to his nerdy friend’s party

where there wasn’t even
any booze. On the way home

I sat in the cloud of my pink
gown sulking because

this long-anticipated night
had turned out to be as flavorless

as water. I don’t even
remember his name.