Featured
Poetry in Lit up
Magic Hour
Free Verse
Three boys on foot
down a mile to the market, toes
slap tar still soft
from the day, the talk
desultory, not much to say, so they turn
around, beneath
streetlights as their laughter leaks
onto the pavement
like loose tobacco from unfiltered smokes.
Girls, cars, their pissed off coach:
words float between them
thin as tracing paper, inked
in flesh.
Ice cream melts in dirty hands,
change clinks,
steps chime
in little victories and their grins
dare time.
They will outgrow their river town
— alright, no doubt —
but tonight
she still sings sweet enough
to hush them till
a joke erupts
before the darkness
calls
the quiet glow of fireflies.
One by one, they breathe
cool air and vow
to never die.
To wages, work, wives
they’ll go, but tonight the starlight holds them
on this street,
in the soft crackle of a wrapper
from the last creamsicle
or cigarette.
Written for the Bananas Boys.
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If you like my stories, check out my young adult novel Down and Out on the Road South, published in 2023 with Wings ePress.
I am based in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I’ve been writing humor, personal essays, and poetry on Medium for four years. The first three chapters of my second book, Same Flood Twice, are free on Substack.
