Truths to My Long Ago Self

by Brent Van Vliet

Adrian "Rosco" Stef, Untitled, digital photograph, 2025. Courtesy of Unsplash.

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Truths to My Long Ago Self

Brent Van Vliet | JAN 2026 | Issue 50

It’s true, you’ll find proud ridge lines of broad shoulders
can make you feel the same warmth
as the driest, full-bodied red wine.

Blush, lip gloss, and glitter will horseplay
with five o’clock shadow.

The smell of Versace cologne can elicit
the same feeling in you as freshly mown grass.

Sweetness and hunger will swirl and overlap
like a river meeting the sea within a firm kiss.

The sturdy meat of a muscled thigh can
make you involuntarily salivate.

You’ll find how safe it feels to be small,
to curl up like a stray cat in the meadow of his furry chest.

There will be a teenage thrill in your navel,
only for you, wearing his underwear home in the morning.

That there is a softness you’ll never expect to find
in a stubbled jawline and calloused hands bigger than your own.
The tenderest innocence there you can possibly imagine.
That of the roses that wrap themselves
around the wrought iron gate in your yard.

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Brent Van Vliet (he/him) is an amateur writer and poet who lives in Washington, DC.