"Just a Kiss"

The first time I heard a song by Lady Antebellum I thought it was terrifically unpoetic, and first impressions have pretty much held. Now in the spirit of “I’m a little drunk and I need you now” and “I miss the way we sleep…I can’t believe that I still want you,” along comes “Just a Kiss” with its narrative as follows:

WOMAN: “Lying here with you so close to me, it’s hard to fight these feelings when it feels so hard to breathe.”

MAN: “I’ve never opened up to anyone. So hard to hold back when I’m holding you in my arms.”

BOTH: “We don’t need to rush this; let’s just take it slow…I don’t wanna mess this thing up; I don’t wanna push too far.”

At this point, anyone who has read or loved an ounce of poetry should be punching “OFF” in great haste—or, if they’re easygoing types, enjoying a laugh at the singers’ expense for the sorry banalities they use so sincerely to express emotions that can’t for the life of them across as deep.

But then the lyrics change: “It’s just a shot in the dark that you just might be the one I’ve been waiting for my whole life. So baby, I’m all right with just a kiss good night.”

Hmm.

In any current blockbuster the romantic pair would have been a tangle of arms and legs a long time ago. Lady Antebellum has done something, not remarkable, but unusual, with this song: the fictional couple is ending their snuggle without sex. Somehow we are to believe that this relationship is exceptionally important to them, for which reason they choose to hold off from their wishes—whence the song’s title, “Just a Kiss.”

The impulse to handle admiration and desire with restraint is the beginning the reverence or respect that grounds healthy relationships. In this climate, when relationships are so often portrayed as consumptively possessive (and that as a desirable thing), this modicum of self-control is a tiny bit refreshing.

Even if it’s hidden like a needle in the haystack of un-poetry.
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NOTE: I wrote this in November when the song was a tad bit newer.