Sonnets

Context — The unimposing outsider.

29.
Abu, a slender boy, swayed to and fro
atop his lanky legs as if the wind
could flip him either way, as it does clothes,
considering while Stella, hopeful, grinned.
The fez-clad boy was raised where cuneiform
was not an ancient, dead, forgotten script,
and yet his look at school was uniform,
a carbon copy: backpack always zipped,
a woolen sweater climbing up his neck
its navy blue to contrast khaki shorts,
on which were several strings of muddy fleck
from football falls. What stood out was the quartz
or milky pendant hung beneath his maw,
a necklace carved as crescent moon and claw.