NVN Tuesday: RUBIALES KISS
by Paul Hostovsky
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They call it football because you can only use your feet. Though sometimes you can also use your head, your chest, your legs. But you can’t use your hands. And you can’t use your arms. Those are the rules. They call it a kiss on the mouth because it’s a kiss on the mouth. You can only kiss the mouth of someone with whom you are intimate. A lover. A spouse. Sometimes also family. Use your head. That’s the rule. In all countries and in all languages. True, it is an unwritten rule, but that’s no excuse for breaking it. And now that you’ve broken it, Luis, now that you’re flaunting it and famously showing your contempt for it, you can be sure the rule will get written down after this. And though you probably won’t end up in jail, you just may end up giving your name to this kind of unwanted kiss. Even without your consent. Because that’s the rule with eponyms.
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Paul Hostovsky's poems have won a Pushcart Prize, two Best of the Net Awards, the FutureCycle Poetry Book Prize, and have been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, The Writer's Almanac, and the Best American Poetry blog.