Other Boys
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it starts with a tussle / in the grass / in talks of being hard / or soft / like that you & i / are tied together / for a lifetime / i knew you could keep a secret / i think i might beat it / to the grave / still i dream / of hands i don’t know / in my underwear /
i don’t know how to tackle / so i wrap two arms and squeeze / around coach’s legs / we aren’t here to hug other boys / but he makes me do it / over & over / in front of the team / i come to like the taste / of dirt in my mouth-piece / i look to parents in a parked car / wonder if we want to be / here / here you wrap it / with a white bow / i bury it deeper / under the backyard / we aren’t wired the same / our blood vessels thread differently / have you ever looked at the back of your hand? / sometimes i watch the blue / roll off the bones a bit / when you fall asleep / i press my hand to yours / we don’t look the same / even without the light |
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Magali Duzant. Grunewald, Afternoon, 2013.
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Steffan Triplett is an MFA candidate and instructor at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a VONA alum and a 2017 fellow for Callaloo and Lambda Literary. His work appears or is forthcoming in The Offing, BOAAT, Wildness, The Shade Journal, and elsewhere. Originally from southwest Missouri, Steffan is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis where he was a John B. Ervin Scholar.
Magali Duzant is an interdisciplinary artist based in New York City. Her photographic work explores perceptions of light and landscape. She has exhibited widely, including at Little Berlin, Philadelphia, Queens Museum in New York City, Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Sydney College of Art in Australia. In 2015, her book, I Looked & Looked, was published by Conveyor Editions. Her work has been published in print and online most recently by Aint-Bad Magazine, Der Greif, Yet Magazine, and Reframing Photography. She holds an MFA from Parsons The New School of Design and a BHA from Carnegie Mellon University. For further information, visit www.magaliduzant.com.