When First We Met

Suzanne Morris

June 8, 2025


you made away with my heart


and though I chased after you

for more than sixty years


I never could retrieve it.


When first we met,


you popped a pal’s bare butt

with a towel 


in the boys’ gym locker room

then made away


ramming your toes into a

big metal garbage can


you didn’t know

was there.


I fell for a boy on crutches.


When first we met,


you owned a gold cable-knit sweater

that I took on loan to wear 


so I could hold your

charged warmth


against my breast

when you weren’t there.


When first we met you said

you loved me more than


I loved you.


Maybe it was so;


you were always

running ahead.


Now that death has

stopped you cold


I’m back to

where we started:


holding all you

were to me


against my breast


chasing after

memories of that time


when first we met.



Novelist and poet Suzanne Morris married J.C. Morris, her high school sweetheart, in 1963.  Both native Houstonians, the couple moved to Cherokee County in 2008, where Ms. Morris continues to reside.  Mr. Morris passed away in 2023.



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