Brink

My friends and I are downing dollar drinks
and gabbing about the possible
effects of lockdown on
symphony venues and 
concert halls.

My attention keeps spilling over to a table nearby.
I am being called in by the baritones and 
buttery tenors of the group of Black men sitting there. 
Someone nudges me, asking about another round.
Someone mentions teaching classes online,
but I am drawn back to conversation 
which bears no trace of the virus.

The men laugh into their plates,
forks still poised in their hands.
Each of them has something remarkable:
fists as big as coconuts,
a perfect plum of a knot in his tie,
an easy demeanor, leaning back in his chair,
intricate waves in his hair,
shoes with buckles,
a purple silk shirt.

I want to say to them all,

Come home with me and laugh as my father might have.
Teach me how to smile in my skin.

---

Mel Sherrer (She/Her) is a writer, editor and educator. She is a proponent of women’s learning institutions having received her B.F.A. from Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia and her M.F.A from Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She is the Social Media Editor for South 85 Literary Journal, and she teaches Creative Writing and Performance Literature. A few of her recent publications appear in Recenter Press and Deep South Magazine. She has poetry forthcoming in MORIA Literary Journal and Headmistress Press. She currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.