new firsts - Alisa M. Libby

Crushes, kisses...I think I had a crush on a book before I had a real crush on a boy. I would walk around the elementary school playground staring wistfully at clouds, imagining I was the Lady Amalthea from Beagle's The Last Unicorn. And there was all that Poe I read and re-read to myself. And Tennyson's Sleeping Beauty. And Lady Jane Grey, with the end that made me weep. And somewhere boys became a distraction, an increasingly greater distraction. And Sylvia Plath became both a terror and a comfort (raging at tulips, raging at everything). And I fell in love with J. Alfred Prufrock and his love song. And I memorized lyrics by Ani DiFranco when she was angry, and Tori Amos when she was crazy and angry.

And there are still firsts, now. Don't think that firsts are only for teenagers. There is still the first time I heard the Dresden Dolls sing "Girl Anachronism" - then learned the words so I could belt it like a lunatic along with them. And there are still more books that I will read - more Last Unicorns and Harry Potters and Draculas - books that will absolutely set me on fire. And I will remember that moment I first fell in love with them.