How I Knew (for Carroll)

It was our first real outing
a drive to Klamath Falls
to see the winter waterfowl
but no, there's too much snow
so Shasta for a ski weekend
staying at your brother's lodge
near Shasta Lake

Still new and not yet intimate
we were enjoying testing
each other
and ourselves as well
after supper
a glass of wine
we found ourselves
lightheartedly
wrestling on the rug

It happened when I thought
to pin you down
and found myself
quite unexpectedly
flipped over your shoulder

what was that? I asked
oh just a shoulder flip
a trick girls learn
by way of self protection

Little time to wonder
how you'd managed it
because as I was getting up
I felt a pain
it seemed a rib
had cracked or maybe broken

And that was how I knew
this would be no little fling
nothing flippant about this woman
I remember thinking

Back then it didn't strike me
the biblical connection
but now that for these many years
you've been Eve
to my Adam
when I remember
the broken rib
(three months to heal)
I think about that shoulder flip
and can't help smiling