Peter Pan

Peter Pan

“I won the prize essay

in school and published

a novel before I was

twenty-five”

—Edgar Lee Masters

“John Horace Burleson,”

Spoon River Anthology

________________________

It was about that time that—

Miss Barrie showed up in my

Life, bumping into him down

There in Peter Pan Park, by

The City Swimming Pool with

All those cute lifeguards with

Muscles and nice hairy legs,

That’s when Never Never Land

Opened up just for me, down

By Monkey Island there by

Peter Pan Lake beneath the

Arbor, from then on I was

Pretty much invisible smoking

Dope and drinking wine with

My Tinkerbell lisp and a coy

Liberace swish, simply just

The cat’s meow, my dear,

Like surely nobody knew, but

Of course the whole town just

Smirked at me, Dishing me &

Definitely Reading My Beads