Marching Band

The heel-toe stride,

straight, sharp,

this is how I learned

to love: a group

at the back of the bus

on the way home

from football games,

uniforms and instruments

pushed under the seats.

I was shy, unsure

about what comes next.

We swapped each other

in the dark like candy,

holding out

for a favorite. Afraid

we’d disappoint, be

disappointed. Afraid of one

step, the next step.

Afraid we weren’t

worthy of such flame. But the hands

were lightning storms,

breathing fire

beneath all that fear,

breaking us

into glass

that glimmered

in the light

of one passing car,

then another.

Bio: Stephanie McCarley Dugger’s first collection of poetry, Either Way You’re Done (2017), was published by Sundress Publications. Her chapbook, Sterling (Paper Nautilus, 2015), was winner of the Vella Chapbook contest. Her essays and poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Arts & Letters, Baltimore Review, Mid-American Review, Poet Lore, Spoon River Poetry Review, Tampa Review, and other journals. She teaches at Austin Peay State University and is Poetry Editor for Zone 3 Journal.