The Bluestone Review 2025

The Bluestone Review

Davis Devin Nelson

All I knew growing up was him sitting on the curb in front of the house with my first cousin we teased and traced the pleats of the outskirt of the city in the summers filled with water guns and electric atvs holes in our jean shorts and dirty white tees we ran up and down the street all day play football with the neighbors and bought 25 cent frozen kool-aid out of plastic cups from the lady five doors down we played PlayStation, eat cereal, wrestle and break things in the winters I’d always lose so sometimes I just sat and watched He was like my brother until he faded away like a vague headache A bittersweet gradient I’m from a place of wanting someone close by but not in my face I believe the phrase is “within 8 arms reach” Where craving company and isolation make the perfect swirl I write about my cousin because he was one of the last ones to truly leave My mother was the first My father followed closely I trace my genesis back to he and I playing in the street -

eating pizza in the living room I come from a place he created

My cousins shadow - My brothers protection

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