First Love

I once saw a blue-eyed mystery

pass by in a crowded high school hallway

smiling easily amidst a clamor of teenage boys passing in a  wave

like a piece of sea glass that washes past and disappears in the tide.

The revealing was

the sound of a voice on the telephone, his skilled hand on

a standard transmission

the close up curve of his lip when he wasn’t smiling

and the sense of distance and loss he felt for a father remarried and moved away.

Just before …  he lowered firm, full lips to mine,

breath held in an endless moment that melted into hours

and weeks, then months.  Until adulthood and independence swept it away.

It was a fast slow confused tingling first glimpse of love.