Evangelyne & Other Poems - Read a Poem a Month

First Sex

After we got into bed, and after he told me
‘I’m glad you’re not wearing lipstick,’
he lay across me like the map of Australia.
I’d heard about ‘the battle of the sexes’
but knew little about naked bodies rolling,
sweating like Sumo wrestlers on a mat.
You could liken my first sex
to martial art.
His sword was searching the scabbard
of my mother-of-pearl.
Glaring – pushing my legs apart –
he fingered the little slit between my legs.
He was hard against me, giving off little grunts
and puffs of air. I remember lying flat
like the map of Australia,
thinking about all the male dogs
in the street,
how they did all the work.