Aaron and Anita, the first real twins I ever personally knew,
drum majored our ragged band in high school called--
the Marching LaSalle Lions. Anita was the outgoing,
mouthy one, but I was star-struck by Aaron, the brooder.
I adored his strange pink olivey skin--always tan,
even in bitter Midwest winters--and his black spikey hair.
Of course those were the late 80's, and the whole world reeled
from Reaganomics, bad pop icons like Robert Palmer and his red-lipped
dames, and the Challenger crashed down on us like hail pelting
car hoods. Even my parents cautiously skated on the thin ice
of their marriage. No music could change America's forecast then.
But when Aaron coached me on flute, he calmed this confusing
world. He was the one who taught me the crescendos and intermezzos
of John Philip Sousa. As the world stammered on off-beat,
he was the one teaching me delicate rhythms
of quarter & eighths marching on regardless.
Added: Monday, July 14, 2014 / Used with permission.
celeste doaks, poet and journalist, is the author of Cornrows and Cornfields (Wrecking Ball Press, UK, 2015). She is also the editor of, and contributor in, the poetry anthology Not Without Our Laughter: Poems of Humor, Joy, and Sexuality (Mason Jar Press, 2017). Her poems have been published in multiple on-line and print publications such as The Rumpus, Chicago Quarterly Review, Asheville Poetry Review, Bayou Magazine, and many others. She is University of Delaware’s Visiting Assistant Professor in Creative Writing for 2017-2019, and the recipient of a 2017 Rubys Literary Arts Grant Award. For more visit celeste's website or check out the literary/pop culture podcast she co-hosts with Anthony Moll called Lit!Pop!Bang!
