Originally published online in the American Journal of Poetry

Your honey-brown skin, cocksure grin. My hero and harasser

growing up. What did you care about the stuff inside my books?

You lived the lives I read: barbarian, pirate, gypsy king in firelight.

You had the height, the hands for love of a certain stripe: the kind

that stains the lips cherry-red, that satisfies while taking what it wants.

Army jacket, cigarettes. Temper sharp and switchblade quick.

A taste for taboo pleasures and the balls to strut right in.

Underaged, you ran the game in poolroom, sauna, dealer’s lair.

Eyes so dark they had no bottom. Magnet of mystery. Your tongue,

a ghost of hungry sorrow, made its way into infinite vagina.

Shoulders broad and never slumped bore grief like moonshine whiskey

smuggled over state lines, poured upon the altar of you-only-live-once.

When we were altar boys, you pocketed handfuls of bills and coins

from the tithing plate. I never would have told, but you gave me a cut

anyway. I was thrilled and afraid to be your partner for a day.

No ripe fruit off limits to you. You charged at life, a ravenous boar.

The faithful and the fair flocked to you like stupid pigeons, flew with you

into night, while in our room I waited up reading Robert E. Howard,

feigning sleep when you returned. I heard your shoes drop to the floor.

Your sigh before ceding to sleep, the breath of a bird flown too high.

“I usually read and record my poems out loud as part of the editing process. When I saw this contest in Quibble, I was excited to share my poem “Icarus,” about my relationship with my older brother growing up, and our very different personalities. Part hero worship, part critique, this poem cuts to the heart of complex emotions between us.”

Alfred Fournier is a Pushcart-nominated poet and community volunteer in Phoenix, Arizona. His poems, flash fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in Quibble, Delmarva Review, The American Journal of Poetry, Welter, Gyroscope Review, New Flash Fiction Review, Lunch Ticket, The Indianapolis Review and elsewhere. His poetry chapbook, “A Summons on the Wind,” is forthcoming from Kelsay Books.