For the first time since forever I haven’t been kissed in over two weeks and I was not prepared for how that would feel. It’s almost four weeks now and I can’t quite name how it feels. It surprised me today, this feeling of the absence.

It’s almost so blurry that I can barely remember what it feels like, I need to actively concentrate and relive the last kisses I had. It feels so distant, faded in the background like an old photo. I knew it was coming, that last kiss. I had some of those in the past months. Last kisses, meaningful goodbyes sealed with soft touch of lips, pressing against each other and pulling away, knowing it’s the last time. That bittersweet moment. And I was prepared, I thought. It’s not that big of a deal, right?

Oh, I was wrong… it’s partly the getting used to it. The touches, the every day affection, the constant reminders someone is there and wants to feel you. It settles over you like a coat, right? Just always with you. And then when you stop, there’s a cold brushing over you as you take off that coat and move along. But the other part is the conscious longing for affection. We want to be touched, we want to be held and kissed. And when you go from all to nothing…

Kiss deprivation. Underkissed. There’s something hollow in this feeling and I wonder how many people feel the same way right now. It should be a diagnosis, I think. Suffering from kiss starvation, in desperate need of a fifteen minute kiss to feel better, doctors orders. Five times daily, to make up for the deficiency. And from then on you can dose down to the normal daily amount of kisses.

I order you to kiss someone, if you can. If you have someone you can kiss, go kiss them. On the lips or cheek, forehead or nose. Long or short. Because as I’m sitting here in my empty apartment, looking around the things reminding me of the person I used to kiss and thinking of the person I want to kiss but can’t… kiss them for me. Kiss them for the ones of us who can’t. Share your affection and your touches, make up for the shortage some of us have to live through.

Thank you.