my first summer after I quit (at 20)
the Catholiic seminary (No Girls)
my older brother died (Car Accident) 
and my gay younger brother (By Four Years)
hooked me up with Sharon (16)

after hot days of road construction
I spent evenings with her
in my parents’ Ford Fairlane 

every night until 11:00
we’d park in the woods
behind the Catholic cemetery
and explore love’s painful limitation

mainly we talked,
her knowledge far beyond
my six years of theology

Sharon, beautiful with all those curves
that I felt beneath her clothes
and those extraordinary moments 
among the pin oak trees
when she held my pain like a leaf
fallen through the car window

my parents worried
about all our hours in the back seat
but my brother told them
that as far as love goes
I had no depth preception

after the summer
I left for college 
and left Sharon
with no proper good bye
(my brother was right about me} 

fifteen years later
I saw her again at my father’s funeral
we sat together in a middle pew
held hands 
saw the tears in each others eyes