(1)
Ransom told me about his first boyfriend
when he was twelve. Jody.
He and Jody would walk through the cemetery
holding hands
Ransom would come home smiling
but later, after he had time to think
he’d cry himself to sleep
He asked me if I thought he was crazy
to like boys that way
I told him, No, I like boys that way, too
Jody and his parents left town
after someone carved an F on his forehead
F for fag
Ransom didn’t do much hand holding after that
He didn’t go out for sports
but he could sure talk cars
He started a lawn mower service
took engines apart
and pieced them together again
Wore the grease under his fingernails
for protection
(2)
One of our edge-of-town neighbors,
Newberry Oaks, followed Ransom
to the cemetery
when Ransom was still
hurting over Jody
Cemetery’s where Ransom goes
spending time with nothing
but ghosts
his aloneness
and the occasional Oaks boy
bent on trouble
Good thing
I was following Ransom too
Newberry’s sneaky
kept to the shadows
of his namesake trees
When I caught up
he says
whatever you’re about to do to me
won’t do no good
you can’t always be there
to protect your fag brother
I shrugged
even though my heart threatened
to split wide open
One singer’s breath and
my voice didn’t shake when I said
Anything
anything at all happens to Ransom
I tell the sheriff I saw
who burned down the Wilson’s barn Saturday night
and in case you have any ideas about me
Dad saw too
Don’t think you can shut both of us up
Who’ll believe injuns, Newberry said
but I saw the look in his eye
and knew
my hunch about the barn burner was right
and that Ransom was safe
for now
–from a novel in progress, Accordion Girl, by Sharon Edge Martin. The first poem has been previously published in Writers’ Digest Prize Poems; Elegant Rage, a Woody Poets anthology from Village Books Press; and in the Spring 2016 edition of Malpais Review.