On Losing That First Love
“Never give all the heart ….
He that made this knows all the cost,
For he gave all his heart and lost.”
William Butler Yeats
I remember the warmth she gave
To reciprocal talk on humid nights,
Our bodies jointly radiant, listening
To raindrops chime on stained glass.
In satin yellow light
Water-beads cast shadows through leaded-windows,
Took on jagged shapes
And smeared like tears across her face.
A warning in retrospect
To a still-unfolding brain —
She never volunteered, remember
She never claimed she loved you.
Personal photograph — made with an SRT-101 film camera in the year 1973.
