2013-04-18

Jeffrey Wilson

Today I spoke with Jeffrey Wilson.
We knew each other
     when I was young,
     and he was younger still.
I had been at judo in the gym;
     had just changed clothes and was leaving
     when he hailed me at the door.

Jeffrey Wilson had been at lifting weights
Wanting strength and muscle
     just enough to compel
     certain people to leave him alone.
"Girls like muscular men, too," he said.

Jeffrey Wilson told me about someone he hated.
A classmate of his
     seems she made him nervous
     when he drove in driver's ed.
He mentioned other people he said he hated.

And one girl he'd wanted to go with all year.
He'd written notes, tried several times
     to go up to her
     to talk to her.
"But when I do, she just walks away."

The evening air at the gym door mixed with the small of sweat and chlorine from the pool.
And Jeffrey Wilson talked about a bench press he wanted to buy.
     It cost seventy dollars.
     He'd decided he needed new clothes more.
Maybe he'd get it next year.

Two years later

It is now two years since I last saw Jeffrey Wilson.
I found him today here on the page.
I have written him, and he is immortal.
     He only aspired to be an electrician.

Carrollton, 1979, and Dallas, GA, 1981.10

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