Boys Will Be Boys

BY LYNNE REEDER.

2000
              he pushed me against a bed
              scraped the skin of my spine
              held my wrists and said,
                            but this is what couples do

2002
              he sat, tie grazing the cafeteria table
              ​mustache melting around his question
                            so, boys,
                            do you think she’s still a virgin
              and when my friends refused to answer
              ​my teacher smiled and told them
              I must not be
              ​given the way I walk

2005
              ​stumbling home in heels too high
              and feet heavy with cranberry stains
              a strange hand groping as if
              two people passing on the sidewalk
              normally touch private things for
              the public to see
                            you feel as good as you look, girl

2006
              proctoring the first standardized test
              of my teaching career
              the male student in row two
              beckoned me to him, pointer finger
              casually calling me to walk closer
              ​to lean in until he whispered,
                            i got you to come with one finger
                            imagine what i could do with two

2017
              writing a poem about a life spent
              learning silence
              i look at the list of men and boys
              who built me out of permission
              i never gave
              ​and know people will still say
                            what do you expect
                            when you’re a pretty girl
Lynne Reeder lives through  words. She writes them, reads them, teaches them, and believes in them always. When she isn’t in her high school classroom or wrangling her two daughters, Lynne manages to write; her work has appeared on Central Penn Parent Magazine as a daily blog, Mothers Always Write, By Me Poetry, Worldwide Poetry, and Make Blackout Poetry, and she has been published in Genre Urban Arts, The Soapbox Volume II and III,  [Insert Yourself Here] (The Paragon Journal), I Have a Name (Creative Talents Unleashed), and Strange Magic (Sunbury Press), and various other journals and anthologies. A collection of Lynne’s writings and blackout poetry, Found Between the Lines, and her first chapbook, Featherstone, are available now. She resides in her childhood hometown in central Pennsylvania with her husband and girls, where she has held the title of Perry County Poet Laureate (2016 and 2018). You can learn more about Lynne's work at www.lynnereeder.com, and follow her on Instagram and Twitter @thepoemreeder.