17 July, 2025
You taught me the meaning of transgress,
not the dictionary gloss but averted
glances at the bar where we sat
in our darkened corner
sipping another black beer
as if anti-miscegenation laws
still hovered in the Southern air.
You tweaked my learning curve later
Gerry Sloan is a retired music professor living in Fayetteville, Arkansas. His poetry collections are Paper Lanterns (2011), Crossings: A Memoir in Verse (2017), and a generous selection in Wild Muse: Ozarks Nature Poetry (2023). His recent work appears in Arkansas Review, Cold Mountain Review, Sierra Nevada Review, Slant, and Mid/South Sonnets. Website: gerrysloanpoetry.com