First Love
1.
You may say she was water-lipped,
yes, and she knew light.
Stars were her voice,
her hair was like the Aurora
of the northern night. When she moved
I saw a bird turning dark to day.
Dawn flowed when she smiled—
it splashed off the metal hills
and broke the pan of the sea, and the hills
responded with cries. I felt the warning
of green worlds to come.
2.
Then she let down her long hair.
Her arms were golden, raised
in the harsh sun;
I could feel the waves of seas
countless among
moving shores;
I saw the wind in her hair
catch and burn and cling to her there,
and she looked towards
but beyond me
and I moved—
and the sun flayed the trees.
3.
Then the sky opened
and the thunder cleared,
the clouds clattered away
and grass fine green
and hands young
to touch in the pitching light
all our days together
crying how we loved
to the sea
so blue
it was bruised
and the high leaves yelled
you
wild in one another.