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American Boys

"A Lucky Strike behind the ear"

Published onMay 28, 2023
American Boys

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. 

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