First Kiss (Poetry)

What giddy turn, what dizzy swoon
what crazy dream is this?
How can eternity be sealed
in one so-breathless kiss?
How can a heartbeat sound so loud
so large and full the moon
and January seem as warm
as any night in June?

The crowd around us, once so close
has faded from my view
their voices like a sea far-off
I see no one but you
and hear no other voice but yours
my senses swept along
imagination glides and soars
the spell holds sweet and strong.

How can the touch of lips impart
a drug that steals the mind
until I cannot focus on
clear thoughts of any kind?
I’m lost in some warm happy place
that I would make my home
content the while you stay with me
and no desire to roam.

And yet I fear forever is
the ache between each kiss
and no thrill in the future will
surpass first love’s pure bliss —
that precious memory to keep
and cherish by the fire
when we are old and romance dreams
of youth’s intense desire.

Doomed not to last — but while it did
the whole world blazed alight
and nothing in all history
could match (for us) that night
the earth moved underneath our feet
and stars rained from the skies
I died a thousand tiny deaths
and found love in your eyes.