Poem: Becoming a Man in the Ladies Department of J. Byron's

Becoming a Man in the Ladies Department of J. Byron's

By Shane Allison
QuailBellMagazine.com

Had to be six years old when I first became interested in girls.
Remember it like it was yesterday, being in J. Byron's
with my mama in Northwood Mall when she veered off

from me to go look at blouses 20 percent off
on the clearance sale rack. Mannequins became my 
Chaperones. I always knew them to be called dummies
 
until I saw that movie Mannequin with Kristy Swanson
and Andrew McCarthy. Whatever happened to their careers?

I looked up at their porcelain, pale faces. They were
like Amazons with the perfect bodies.
Not an ounce of fat. Maybe an occasional mole
 
painted just so on their cheek to symbolize
some sort of reality of how  women look.
They were all of the Caucasian persuasion.

Don't remember seeing any sista mannequins
dressed in kente cloths with braids or afros.
Now that I think about it, there were no

Asian, Native or Latino American mannequins either.
They were all so anatomically correct with their perky
breasts, tan, glossy lips, and Farrah Fawcett eyelashes.
 
As Ma was trying on shoes, I circled those dummies
like a hungry shark. Tugged at their skirts, felt up their
supple legs. I wanted more.
 
So when I was sure the coast was clear of shoppers,
I got on my hands and knees and took a look
beneath the clothes of those manufactured girls.

I discovered a paradise of thighs, stomachs.
But there was no sign of a booty back there.
It looked more like my sister's Barbie dolls.

There was no trace of a vagina or tufts of pubic hair,
the things that make a woman truly a woman.
In fear that I would get caught by a

mall security guard, I lifted myself
up from the floor with amazement and confusion.
Ma returned with a new pair of shoes, took

my childish hand into hers as we walked
to the next store.
That was the day I realized,

those mannequins were not as
anatomically correct as I thought.

#Unreal #Mannequin #JByrons #Manhood #BeecomingAnAdult

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