First Love

By Jan Owen b. 1940 Jan Owen

Titian’s Young Englishman with a Glove, circa 1530

It happened in Physics,

reading a Library art book under the desk,

(the lesson was Archimedes in the bath)

I turned a page and fell

for an older man, and anonymous at that,

hardly ideal –

he was four hundred and forty-five,

I was fourteen.

‘Eureka!’ streaked each thought

(I prayed no-one would hear)

and Paradise all term

was page 179

(I prayed no-one would guess).

Of course

my fingers, sticky with toffee and bliss,

failed to entice him from his century;

his cool grey stare

fastened me firmly in mine.

I got six overdues,

suspension of borrowing rights

and a D in Physics.

But had by heart what Archimedes proves.

Ten years later I married:

a European with cool grey eyes,

a moustache,

pigskin gloves.

Jan Owen, “First Love” text from Poems 1980-2008, John Leonard Press, 2008; audio from Laughing in Greek, Audio CD, 2011: by permission of River Road Press and the poet. Copyright © 2008, 2011 by Jan Owen.

Source: Poems 1980-2008 (John Leonard Press, 2008)

First Love

First Love

RELATED CONTENT