When Will I Grow? Poem by Herbert Nehrlich

She winked at me,
and I, the country boy
just stared
and tilted
to the right
as if to hear
a certain note
too big to fit
the normal way
into my ear.

She wore a dress
that said
Back
in the back,
and Front
over...well...
those, you know
small elevations,
little buds
of late September,
as they hardened
since the end of May.

I went to fiddle then,
eyes down
two fingers up,
the temple being what
there was to know,
somewhere inside
there was the wisdom
of it all,
but I was dumb
and let another
make the call.