Jonathan Bracker

Figure Study, From The Back

Jonathan Bracker

Fairly thin tracks of hair Each side the back of his neck Lead into a recent neat trim. Under long-sleeved Oxford shirt Shoulders shift as he reads, Right hand tapping forehead a bit. There is warmth in his upper torso Above the chair section it tops. A thick beaded belt brightly colored

Half hides the label of still-dark Levis Cupping slight buttocks: A 20-year-old studying In a Catholic university library reading room. The magazine he studies is in Spanish. Probably this person is from a happy, large, Well-to-do family from a foreign country And is genuinely pleased With the opposite sex. Elbows planted, he raises magazine into air. This Friday or Saturday night, the power In those shoulders may perhaps be drawn upon. Clean dark hair caps his head. When he was a boy His parents most likely stroked it.

Poems by Jonathan Bracker have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry Northwest, Southern Poetry Review, and other periodicals, and in eight collections, the latest of which, from Seven Kitchens Press, is Attending Junior High. He lives in San Francisco.