Bobby Elliott
Before Anyone Else Knew
We spent a weekend on the coast
and walked as far as we could
into what I imagine was fog
or mist that wouldn’t let up
until the spring. You were our
fragile son or daughter (daughter
if you asked me then), future
we toasted sparkling
apple cider to in the evening, TV-less
and cooking Bolognese in a dented
stock pot someone went
to town on once, like the flute
I ruined in the 7th grade, year
of smoke touching down
on the moon of my lungs, year
the towers fell and we sang
by candlelight at the precinct. What
I’m saying is we coveted
that brief period of time
when you were a secret
and only ours to envision
on the drive and on the beach,
in our arms and in the night.
How different it is now
— sweet boy standing
in the dark of your room
and trying to remember to call
for us before crying —
to keep the same secret
from you, a brother.
Bobby Elliott reads “Before Anyone Else Knew ”
Bobby Elliott’s debut collection of poems, The Same Man, was selected by Nate Marshall as the winner of the 2025 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize and will be published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in September. His poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from Diode, North American Review, ONLY POEMS, Poet Lore, Poetry Northwest, RHINO and elsewhere.