Reading Is Fundamental

by Ben Kline

    Lesson 1
What’re we gonna do tonight? / Lotus-legged circle in Grandma’s den / around a foot-high pile of newspapers to roll / I say we drive down to Huntington / giving good face around the room / the category best friends for Jon and Henri / guest starring cousin Pat and Wesley as Henri’s boo / and go to the Driftwood for drag / boys, ya turn me / Damn I love this song, and then me / teetering off the bass rolling from Jon’s new stereo / from a cassette tape by / a beautiful brown woman in white tee and snug faded jeans / There’s a lot for a Friday paper / upside down round and round, instinctively / Honey, people like sales / Trickle down as a big move up to / any other side of town / respectively, as it were / I say we go to the lake / but I was from a farm, away / from the burn of / knowing, or not 
 

    Lesson 2
That reporter / dispatched from Tehran / needs to shave / where the claws of metal eagles failed to make fists / Right? Bad news should come from / saturated blues and greens on Grandma’s new RCA / good looking people / But the former actor in the first commercial / Can we watch something else?/ promised a great America again / I mean, you know they’ll kill them all / not knowing the coming need for kindness / Pat, can you reach the dial? / More papers rolled, stacked pyramid / Who the hell’s buying shoes at K-Mart? / Almost time for their bike route / I dunno, honey. Your trailer cousins? / Henri lifted an invisible tea cup to his grin and winked / and Pat laughed, Nah / my ma buys mine at Ungers / and I wiggled my toes / squeezed into unbreathable plastic / brown Payless sneakers
 

    Lesson 3
Guys, look. This was my Uncle Reggie / Wesley unfolded a paper / Top left photo, a young black man halfway through / life at the bottom of the obits / sad bits, Grandpa always said / between sips after coming home from the mill / Jeez, lotta dead people today, whole page worth / Imagine dying without your name / no Jon, Henri, Wesley or Pat / just fledglings smashed flat from sudden impact, all flung / into the trash hole behind the horse barn / Was really sorry to hear about him, Wes / into flames angry enough to melt everything, even the boys / later left in trash bags by anxious orderlies passing the bill to hell / Thanks, Pat, but truth, we weren’t close / after heaven refused to help / They think he had cancer / Imagine knowing without / words for your knowledge / but I don’t think they’ll ever know for sure
 

    Lesson 4
Ok, let’s wrap this up and get going / Pat finished his pile and mine, unknowingly rubbing / my arm aflame with a feeling he / Folks need to get their news / would articulate loudly a decade later / in a locked stall at the mall / I still say we go to the Driftwood / The papers stuffed into smudged eggshell canvas / bags slung over shoulders / Hey everybody, having fun again? / as they strutted toward the back porch door / as Henri insisted the dress made / by someone named Mackie / was fabulous, like a gown / woven with moonbeams and starlight / and I wanted to / know how they have fun / go with them again / on the handlebars down 4th Street over / Grandma’s objections and Jon’s denials / when my mom found out / I mean it matched her lashes! / that Henri and Wesley were demonstrating French / kissing for Pat the last time Jon / babysat me on Friday afternoon
 

    Lesson 5
I can’t believe she / halfway through a daydream about Spider-Man vs the Thing / called us faggots / Laughter opened the door / She didn’t call she yelled / like an old piano finishing / with some jazzy ad libs / notes ahead of the melody as / bags crumpled on the kitchen floor / That’s because she doesn’t know about Bobby / joining the invisibility of wishes and prayers / Or maybe she does / Crosstalk cut the tar cloud / of Grandma’s after-nap slims / like thwip thwips from web shooters trying / to stop Grimm from landing a kapow / ugh who cares! Everyone has a secret. Sooooo, / where it might actually hurt / where are we going tonight? / My mom would be back soon / taking me home with the groceries and pizza, four / loaves of bland wonder / for the deep freezer.
 

    Lesson 6
Can we please go back / upstairs in Jon’s room, thigh to thigh with Pat on the lower bunk / to that dress? / Jon closed the door as Henri / adjusted boombox dials, / Because it was everything and the leftovers / restarting the cassette / Is that Miss Ross? / my small crooked finger turning their heads to / the poster of the giant black lady on / the back of the door She seems / shiny like that Mackie / and their laughter smothered the beat and the bass as Jon / took me by the wrists and spun me to dizzy / That’s Grace lil man, Grace Jones, a whole / different kind of goddess / the boys a blur and I wanted to know / Is she fabulous too? / but my fab wobbled loose, flopping / off my lips, my maw not ready / for such girth / Honey, she is / fierce! and she resembled Storm right before she summons lightning to blow up Sentinels
 

    Lesson 7
I think she looks like a superhero / Wesley gives me a second spin, higher / and faster, lacking the safety of being kin, thus / She kinda does / possessing a thrill unknown / so like the complete opposite of most people round here / People who might envy the freedom in this room / You’ll figure it out when you’re older / so small so safe / Or he won’t because he’s…not? / but I was / wanted to be / could not imagine / being any other way / Should we be teaching him how to read? / I could already read the newspaper. (Wesley Carter II, 43, died / at the King’s Daughter Hospital on….) / Faces too, but / but I took most note of names, / Is it ever too early? / especially after that they were gone / Have you seen him arch his eyebrow? / and my nights grew too long, the crickets / harmonious mmhmms floating / atop an unheard syncopated chorus of triple snaps