Poem: First Love

The photo I have used as a background is one of my husband's favourites, one he especially asked me to include in my web Page. It was taken from a newspaper snap-shot in the local paper the day we left Lae, New guinea, in April, 1967, and I had already accepted his proposal of marriage. Though I wasn't yet eighteen I knew he was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

What was I doing in New Guinea? My parents moved there when I was three years old, and I grew up mainly in Lae, though we started off in Rabaul. I still remember being shaken out of bed by the gurias (earthquakes to non-territorians!) I met Bob when he came up to serve a two-year stint in New Guinea with the Commonwealth Bank, and he asked my mother if he could take me to a party. I was only fifteen, and believe me, nobody was more surprised than me when she said yes!

Now we were returning to Sydney, and as planned we were married in December of that year. Though we've had more good times than bad, like many married couples we sometimes got so caught up in our responsibilities that we forgot how important it is to have fun - to give as much time to each other as we should. But that has all changed now, hence the words in my poem.

Tender yet fierce, the love I feel for you

Consumes me with a melting, burning fire

So strong, it hurts. I tremble with desire

When you so much as touch me. Once we two

Felt just as we do now. What happened to

That moment? Which one of us lit the pyre

That turned our love to ashes? Made a liar

Of both of us. The day we said "I do"

Things changed. Now wife, not lover. With that lie,

I locked away my hopes and dreams. Not free

To be myself, my self began to die.

There was love, but you didn't burn for me.

Then suddenly things changed, and darling, I

Know at last you want that girl I used to be.