56 Psaltery & Lyre: Jeremy Windham, “Boy Raised Gorgon”

Boy Raised Gorgon

 
My father’s lecture in the car
on my way to the second day
of sixth grade was of handshakes,

the brief transaction of budding
manhood between eleven year olds,
the voiceless, primal delivery

of one’s existence summed up
between the palms of two men
who do not know how to be men.

A how-to in the parking lot:
knuckles must whiten,
forearm must tighten

and relax at the release
but eyes never leave
their counterparts.

If the calculation of masculinity
is performed by the wrist
and lasts less than three seconds

I am no more a man than the boy
whose locker was next to mine
and was also afraid to undress.

But if our strengths are measured
with a gaze, observe the statues
our beholders will become,

wide-eyed and petrified
by the hissing head
on our shoulders.

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Jeremy Windham is currently an undergraduate creative writing student at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas where he also studies violin performance. His poems can be found in The Blue Route, HUMID, and a local charity-based chapbook.

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