Text
One’s pinstriped pants
right leg pulled up
flesh of his calf
exposed, and yet
no bicycle in sight.
The white shirt
designed in the style
of Romeo, a Montague
body sprawled
in misty breaking light.
Next to him, similar
in age and dress
a boy in a Paisley shirt
with tight maroon
pants, unbuttoned.
In dappled sun
through leaves of
a towering oak
under which they sleep,
two boys sleep.
Keep their secrets
to themselves, who
loves whom and
whose heart swells
for the other.
Biking past them
on my way to coffee,
I slow when I see them
—as if in a dream,
the dream they dream.
Previously published online in Allium, A Journal of Poetry & Prose, May 2023.