“Shame” by Josh Olsen

Owen’s parents sat by the fire smoking joints and lighting ladyfingers.
Heath’s mother passed out with the TV on.
Mike’s grandparents drank lite beer and played euchre.
                                     *
The cliché is …experimentation should be reserved for the college years,
but it was old news by the time I was eight.
My sexual revolution peaked in the first grade.
                                     *
Owen gave me my first blowjob.
Heath pinched my nipples and called me Kylie.
Mike told me to buttfuck him.
                                     *
I wrote a poem about a neighbor boy who asked me to piss in his mouth –
it quickly became my most popular piece, inciting loud and drunken requests
at Open Mics. The infinitesimal celebrity felt good.
In my first workshop I was told I use humor to mask my shame.

(Josh Olsen is a father of two and a writing instructor at the University of Michigan and Wayne State University)