snatch of the sunrise

The cold slime of the ditch covered his whole body; and, when the bell rang for study and the lines filed out of the playrooms, he felt the cold air of the corridor and the staircase inside his clothes.  He still tried think what was the right answer.  Was it right to kiss his mother or wrong to kiss his mother?  What did it mean, to kiss?  You put your face up like that to say goodnight and then his mother put her face down.  That was to kiss.  His mother put her lips on his cheek; her lips were soft and they wetted his cheek; and they made a tiny little noise: kiss.  Why did people do that with their two faces?

-James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man