Robert Clifton
—
Southern Rail
I was warned from them, venomous
and naturally the most beautiful,
creamy yellow tails darkening to copper
and rust near the head.
The ones to fear, not blacksnakes
thick as braided cables, stretching
across highway lines or coiled on wooden steps
to the beach, more likely to slither away
into honeysuckle bushes lining the road
or onto cool sand shaded by staircases.
Those could be anything we imagined,
mouthpieces and cords of Bakelite phones,
discs whirring through dialed numbers,
leather belts folded, raised overhead,
swung through air laced with aftershave
and commercials for no lye relaxer,
available in three shades:
mahogany, sienna, and auburn.
My parents dressing for dinner out,
letting me watch Soul Train
as they shaved and sprayed perfume,
reached into closets for neckties and pearls,
the same belt that threatened to welt
my thighs circling his waist.
Sound of their car pulling away,
warmth rushing my belly,
my red hair fanning their pillows.
Lace stockings, garter belts I slipped
from my mother’s dresser drawers,
lying naked on the bed stroking
as the O’Jays sang Who am I,
who am I. Purple strobes brushing
the dance floor into ocean waves.
Spotlights dark as bruises I’d be given
if I were caught, the screen suddenly
a two-way mirror. Pleasure of being seen,
brought onto the dance floor writhing
in parade, grasped behind the head,
mouth pried open, fangs extended,
milked hard. Every boy on my street
knew they were poisonous, copperheads
hiding in attics and on basement floors,
a nest of them hissing in the crawlspace
under our house.
Brandon Dean Lamson is the author of Starship Tahiti, winner of the Juniper Prize, and his recent poems have appeared in Poetry Northwest, Prairie Schooner, and Third Coast. His memoir, Caged: A Teacher's Journey Through Rikers, or How I Beheaded the Minotaur, was released last spring by Fordham University Press. Currently, he teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin.
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