Porno magazine

One day, when I was in grade school, there were about 200 kids on the playground. Somewhere on the jungle gym. Summer on the asphalt playing kickball. Somewhere on the field playing soccer. Somewhere on a different section of the asphalt playing foursquare. Some were in the trees, running around the trunks and pretending to be horses. I don’t remember where I was. Maybe I was playing kickball. All of a sudden, there was a mad rush to one area of the soccer field. At first, it was like a scene out of a movie or something bad happens like a bomb exploding and everyone is running around, not knowing what to do. In this case, however, it was the exact opposite. It was like the bomb imploded and sucked all the kids into one point near the center of the soccer field. I was one of the last ones to get there. There was already a crowd gathered around the center. I thought my way through grabbing shoulders, pulling them back, getting down on my knees my hands and knees and crawling in between legs. Once I got there, I got one glimpse Of what was causing all the commotion before a teacher reached in and snatched it away. It was a picture in a magazine of a naked woman in a bathtub. At the time, I had no idea I was looking at a porno magazine. I didn’t even know a porn was. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a naked woman before. But in an instant, without explanation, I understood why the magazine was like a bomb that sent a shockwave through all the students and sucked them in, almost with some intangible suction that pulled on all of our intuitions. I learn more about the world—about why wars are fought, why poetry is written, and why humans keep on living and dying—in that instant, than I had in all my schooling up to that point.