'Sonnet in Orange Avenue Projects' by Shane Allison

Junior, Connie’s son, wanted to see my dick
In the woods of Orange Avenue projects when I was twelve.
He looked at it while I pissed in a ditch.

Wanted him to touch it, but he shook his head, no.
Funny that he knew the slang term for penis at his age.
I got jealous when he tried to get under Mekeeba’s skirt:

Boyish hands up girlish thighs.
No one cares about sexual harassment in the projects.
We sat on Wabelline’s porch, bein’ children, smellin’
Like wet dogs from all the playin’.

“Hush all that fuss,” she yelled.
Junior told his sister Jennifer, that I had a big dick.
He promised not to tell,
But kids break their promises like pencils in Orange Avenue Projects.

 

Shane Allison: Shane Allison is the evil mind behind such critically-acclaimed books as,Ceiling of Mirrors, (Cynic Press), Black Fag, (Future Tense Books),Black Vaseline, (Blaze Vox Books) and the recently released, Cock and Balls from Feel Free Press. His Pushcart Prize nominated poems, stories and book reviews have appeared in Mississippi Review, Plum Ruby Review, Velvet Mafia, Suspect Thoughts, Blue Food, Frigg, Oyster Boy Review, storysouth and others. He has had work published in such anthologies as Fantasies Made Flesh, Any Boy Can, Saints and Sinners, and Wild and Willing. New work is forthcoming in Velvet Heat a book of erotic poetry, and a story is forthcoming in Best Black Gay Erotica this winter from Cleis Press.