Boy Cave

We crawled into our classroom.

It was school, after-school,

Since no one would teach us

what we wanted to know.

Hedged, hooded from the sun,

On a neighbor’s corner lot

We dug up the tin box

With the harmless smut,

Passed around the Playboys

Chatted, laughed.

The centerfolds splayed out.

Mosquitoes flitted around our fingers.

The magazines, our textbooks.

Hungry, curiosity allayed,

We crawled out

Into the evening shadows,

Went separate ways,

Home to mom and dad,

For dinner.

—David Markwardt