Tonight's Poet Corner: Not Like Other Boys

Not Like Other Boys
by Belinda Roddie

You wore the green flannel that
I love seeing on you, wobbling
slightly on the balls of your feet as
you balanced a bottle of something
stronger than guilt in your hand. "Do

you want to get out of here?" you asked
with your lips nearly touching my ear.
You were much more jittery than the rest of
the boys I've known - most of them rugged
and chiseled and heavily bearded. You've got

some fuzz along your notable jawline, but
you've always looked, felt, been gentler than
the ones who gripped me like a security
blanket during hot and sleepless nights.

I took you outside where we both breathed in
dust from disappearing cars and Santa Ana winds.
You loosened the top button of your shirt and
exposed some scruff underneath. "It's really
coming along," I said, meaning it as a compliment.
You did not smile. I wanted to kiss you.

I wish others saw you as the boy you are. You
do things I wish all the other boys dared to do. I
want to take you to bed with the fan turned
on high, with the edges of that flannel shirt
billowing out behind you, with your red hair
ruffled like a sunrise swelling atop your head.