John Philip Drury

THE ATHEISTS OF JUNIOR HIGH

clobbered and dazed me dumb, their confidence

as titillating as a sip of wine.

Not that I’d had much. My experience

was limited to port, kneeling in line

at the communion railing in our church.

All girls, they awed me, exulting in disbelief,

as fiery as my camp counselor’s torch

that lit a nighttime hike along a bluff.

My camp had daily chapel. And I used

to sing in choirs, adoring hymns and prayers.

But I was fascinated and seduced

by the cool talk of Janice and of Clare,

who stirred me up, my agitated soul,

making their godlessness divine in school.

John Philip Drury is the author of four full-length poetry collections: Sea Level Rising, The Refugee Camp, Burning the Aspern Papers, and The Disappearing Town. He has also written The Poetry Dictionary and Creating Poetry. His poems have appeared in Hudson Review, Paris Review, Poetry, American Poetry Review, The New Republic, and other periodicals. His narrative nonfiction has appeared in Gettysburg Review, Evansville Review, and as a Ploughshares Solo. His awards include an Ingram Merrill Foundation fellowship, two Ohio Arts Council grants, a Pushcart Prize, and the Bernard F. Conners Prize from Paris Review... Full Profile