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Huck Finn Reels in Some Stretchers
By T. Allen Culpepper My dead mam and pap named me Huckleberry Finn, but most folks jest calls me Huck. Last time I brung myself ’round to tellin’ stories ’bout myself, I said wouldn’t nobody know me lessen they’d read a book name of Tom Sawyer by Mr. Mark Twain, but I hear tell now some ...
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Yes
By Frank Adams No one told me I could say no. No one told me what happened was wrong. I learned to keep my mouth shut. I did not tell on the older boys, delivery man, neighbor, cousins, or coach who touched me. I did not tell, always assuming it was me who seduced them. ...
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The Talk
By Frank Adams My parents did not talk about sex. Mother could not say out loud, bathroom or toilet tissue. She whispered them as though they were magic words. No one questioned the guys I brought home. No one said gay, queer, or homosexual to my face. And I volunteered nothing. All of the time aware ...
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Just Asking
By Frank Adams Once, mother asked me if an older boy was bothering me. She didn’t mention sex, but I suspected that was what she was asking. I said, no, he wasn’t bothering me. And that was the truth. I didn’t tell her I wished the boy would bother me.
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His Gloss, Our Gain
By Robert Warwick The beautiful boy blows bubbles from a wand and strikes ironic yoga-like poses. He reminds us that there is not much time left, that the ticking inside is finite, fleeting. Out back, amidst the rabbits and the grapes, we feel our oats and arm-wrestle. The winner is he ...
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Swedes Lake
By Robert Warwick What are we to do with all of this? The sky hazing over, refusing to be blue, the air around us like liquid so that our skin drinks it in and we are made damp. What do you do with that? We splash when we touch, seep when we sigh, leave ...
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Your Best Girl
By Robert Warwick See how all the women here sit with their backs to the door? Note their potential self-sacrifice while the men, elbows on table, tuck into steaming bowls of caldo, slick-lipping bottles of cervezas so early on a Saturday morning. I’ve no illusions. I put my back to the door because I ...