Hirquiticke

Hirquiticke

May 15, 2024

“One past fourteen yeeres of age, beginning to bee moved with Venus delight” - Henry Cockeram, An English Dictionary, 1623

I just finished reading, “Venus and Adonis” by William Shakespeare.

I will now commit the poem to memory.

Sheila was my park. I was her deer. We both just turned 17.

This meant nothing but trouble (at the time). But forty years later, this was only a pleasant memory. She wanted me to read her D. H. Lawrence novels. I only wanted the Cliff Notes version.

She told me she found patience sexy. Very sexy.

Under such pressure, I acquiesced. I am so glad I did.

Next came Henry Miller’s, “Tropic of Cancer”. Sheila became Tania. I, indeed, made her ovaries incandescent.

By the onset of our senior year, I discovered, “Fanny Hill.” Then Sheila discovered, “Fanny Hill.” Then, her father discovered what we had both discovered.

By Thanksgiving, we were banned from seeing each other. By Christmas, her family had moved to where good girls go to reaffirm their princess status and reacquire their virginity from the gossips who know too much. In essence, somewhere far, far, away.

When I see a copy of these novels, or a couple sharing their serendipitous delight in exploring where the rest of us have traversed, I think of Sheila.

And my love of the richness of the English language to elevate the mundane to elegant elevations.