Fraternal 1
—Is that all you’re going to say ? Ok ?
I spose I didn’t react enough on the call to suit him.
—Dad’s dead.
Ok.
—He had a heart attack.
Ok.
—They tried two hours at the hospital but it was too late.
Ok.
—They’ll be working out the funeral details there.
Ok.
Really, what did he want ?
I didn’t love a man who didn’t love
Me. I wasn’t going to
Pretend I was all broke up.
Devastated. He was nearly 90.
He beat me. He insulted me.
He threatened me.
He cheated on our mother.
He’s lucky
I didn’t say Good.
Fraternal 2
66 (almost 67) still growing
His hair long because Daddy
Made him get crew cuts
As a boy.
Some men should get therapy.
And hair care products.
Fraternal 4
He is chipper, jolly, chatty.
Automatically my asshole puckers. In a sci-fi movie it’d be the tell that the pod people had gotten him. But here on planet Earth, it means he’s up to something, after something. He’s never personable. You could ask him a question and he would just stare, unspeaking.
He’s never been happy to speak to me. He talks about the rains in Indiana, mowing the yard, banalities. And then ! the business: what mom had, what it was worth : pensions, IRAs, dividends, accounts.
What might be worth something in the accounting of the estate that I am undertaking. What about debt ? Secured ? Unsecured ? Capital gains. Was there other real estate ? What about the farm ?
—You’re sitting on 28 acres.
He says that several times.
—You’re sitting on 28 acres.
He wants to sell. He doesn’t say it, it’s obvious. He’s not subtle, not smooth, never as smart as he thought.
—What are your plans ?
I was thinking of staying. At least a while. I can’t afford to move.
—Well I’m okay with that.
As though his was the only voice.
Fraternal 5
Really, to go
Your whole life and no one
Is glad you enter a room.
Fraternal 6
Once his wife said : We googled you,
You know.
Then sat there. Placid. Beaming a little.
« Really. Some people just ask questions. »
RJ Gibson lives and works in West Virginia. His poems have appeared in Court Green, Allium, Waxwing, Cortland Review and other journals. His work has appeared in the anthologies Queer Nature: A Poetry Anthology, Collective Brightness: LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion & Spirituality, and Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean: Meditations on the Forbidden from Contemporary Appalachia. A former Lambda Literary Fellow, he is the author of three chapbooks: Scavenge (winner of the Robin Becker Prize), You Could Learn a Lot, and white noise :: something, all from Seven Kitchens Press. His current favorite feud is Gore Vidal suing Truman Capote over a Playgirl interview in 1975. It was settled out of court with a formal apology after Lee Radziwill wouldn’t testify for Capote.
