J.J. – 1985

2021 JAMES APPLEWHITE POETRY PRIZE FINALIST

BY SANDRA DREIS

He was a jar of honeybees you’d try to contain; but then, you felt guilty even with holes in the lid and you took off the cover. Let go. Bye-bye. Free as a bee.

After the tour, we traveled to Vegas to our Producer’s new home. His wife cried at the sight of cacti on the lawn. Then she saw the white convertible,

and Jerry. He was a flirt. A gorgeous dancer. Had a make-believe girlfriend in Chicago. I went along, pretended to believe. So we shined as friends.

Perennial show-off, almost got us arrested at Niagara Falls, posing in arabesque for photos at customs; adored Maple Leaf flag. Security guards ordered him back to the van.

SANDRA DREIS, a member of Winston Salem Writers, has just completed her first poetry chapbook, entitled “Black Pearl Diary.” Her poetry appears in Flying South, Main Street Rag, Poetry in Plain Sight, Dark Moon Lilith and Snapdragon, among others. She is a retired Arts Connection Teacher for the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools.

Threshold, 1990 (oil and beeswax on canvas, 9x12) by Jesse Murry

He was cooking a fluffy egg-white omelet when the floor shook. Low-key response from our boss, just nuclear testing underground. Unshaken, Jerry auditioned. Vegas MGM Grand.

We met no-nonsense choreographer, ex-showgirl lifted by surgery into middle age. I returned from a stroll to find Jerry employed. Days later, he’s a swing replacement.

Sinking of the Titanic, a bit cheesy, big budget, costume-heaven. Five gaudy changes for JJ. He killed it. A hula number. A tango. A yellow raincoat. An elaborate sinking.

Jerry waved farewell from the doomed ship. I watched as he went down into the waves. Two years later, contracted AIDS. Left no forwarding address. Just friends in the lifeboat.

Fayetteville, NC, native JESSE MURRY (1948–1993) was raised in White Plains, NY. He earned a BA at Sarah Lawrence College in 1976, and at the age of thirty-eight, earned an MFA at Yale. A painter and poet, his art criticism and essays appeared in national publications. In addition to exhibiting his work, he lectured, participated in panels, and was a visiting professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. His awards included a Mellon Individual Project Grant and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. In a 1987 published collection of essays, he acknowledged he had struggled against racial barriers. Despite such obstacles, the artist achieved critical recognition in his short lifetime; it continues to this day. He died of AIDS-related illness at the age of forty-four. See more of his work at the Tibor De Nagy Gallery in New York and on the Visual AIDS website.