"A Lucky Strike behind the ear"
Photo by Ekrulila: Pexels.com
Stiff jeans. White shirts. Bare feet.
Candied sweat on glazed skin.
Peach fuzz in a high glisten, sizzling
under a circumspect sun.
Tennessee whiskey on the tongue.
A Lucky Strike behind the ear.
Hands gliding through hair and lips
chanting
summertime refrains.
Sprawled in the sand, blessed by the breeze,
timid limbs and churning stomachs
combine
on infinite California shores.
Sons on the beaches, in unfettered trenches.
Sons in moonlit parks and low-lit theaters,
in the backs of cars and just-this-once’s.
Brett Atkinson is a secondary school educator and military veteran with a background in English and language and literary studies. He lives in Houston with his husband and five golden retrievers.