I’d never seen them green before

 

            They reminded me of Miss La Rosa

            When she showed me what I’d gotten wrong

            In math

 

            One by one she laid the tests down

            On our desks and bent her head

            A little, smiling – she was awfully nice,

            Which made it all the worse –

            As if to say “You’re so much smarter!”

 

            Generally I blushed twice as hard

            Not only for my dumb mistakes

            But for her eyes and how they made me feel,

            Which was to want to move mine closer

            Till our noses touched

 

            Her make-up made her eyes stand out

            By sinking in, so that they shone

            Like emeralds in a cave:

            To steal a glance at them

            Seemed like piracy

 

            At the blackboard though

            They were the colour of arithmetic again

            Before she turned her back

            And reaching with her chalk

            To balance an equation

            Multiplied the mischief of my dreams

 

            One warm Spring afternoon she woke me up

            By asking something that I didn’t hear

            But should have known

            And marched me to the front of the class

 

            The sun was streaming in and when she saw that

            Blinded as I was

            I couldn’t even scribble anything

            Her eyes came out

 

            The greener they became the ruddier I grew

 

            It was the pity, though, that sent me

            Scuttling like a lobster to my chair:

            She couldn’t help herself

 

            This morning

 

            Maybe it was the angle of the light

            Or the inclination of your head

         

            But when your irises changed hue

            Sudden as a field of grasses gusted by a wind

 

            I couldn’t help but gaze upon

            The richly-shaded radiating folds and sluices

            Of a new terrain