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.