I Forgot I Was Drinking

October 30, 2019January 24, 2018 / James Croal Jackson / Leave a comment

beer half past noon listening reading
to sam sax’s on alcohol poem

after the final line in one hand
a bottle to my lips my body a future
compromised

i promised mom i’d outlive her
& it’s going well so far

but these low-hanging clouds
are moving fast and there are drips
of sky becoming foggier

sara says we shouldn’t have drank last night
a monday
but the beers at woodlands are bargain $2 drafts

o genie whisk me to an open field
with flask construct a crumbling house
at the center where i lay drooling the day’s
indiscretions

my mouth a volcano
concrete spat into my palms

the heaviness of me
drops

(originally published in Flypaper Magazine, Winter 2018)

Zen of the Clattering Ceiling Fan

October 27, 2019January 19, 2018 / James Croal Jackson / Leave a comment

These Tinder dates and hookups.
Teeth kisses and unfamiliar homes.
You count cold days and they are circular.

There’s a blue hue from the window.
M snores in unison with the universe
of her bedroom. I can’t sleep, so

I become the fan. After some time,
transcendence is the blade that cuts
through stale air, makes the room breathe.

(originally published in The Bitchin’ Kitsch, Spring 2018)

Brisk Walk

October 23, 2019January 23, 2018 / James Croal Jackson / Leave a comment

do not miniaturize the bicycle torso between blue wheels

nor the twig tree broad-shouldered nor yellow-trousered man
walking the candy cane

coming shapes myself an igloo of time contracting

mirror view hot pyramids the tips crumble so reaper crows
confuse for wheat

the sculpted falsity in the curving sidewalk

those pickled legs just churn and churn

(originally published in Cafe Aphra, Winter 2018)

Dead Whale

October 20, 2019January 19, 2018 / James Croal Jackson / Leave a comment

Upon the gum’s shore,
a body beaches–
abscessed tooth of
sand.

How the mouth learns
to chew
diamonds–
the glint
of blood.

Soon, this is ritual.

Don’t confess
your ailing–
let bleed from morning
into next.

The dentist says
don’t drink– so
consume the ocean
of the night
and float
yourself to sea.

(originally published in former People, Winter 2018)

The Hours

October 16, 2019October 15, 2019 / James Croal Jackson / Leave a comment

Can’t even sustain myself with the hours
I work to make myself; a waterfall of dollars
and dreams splashing off wet stone. I hold no

heart hostage but my own; the heart holds me
hostage through beating, my breathing
a slow decay. In aging I prove nothing

to the universe except that I exist;
through the office, I prove I do not.
Despite the hours, the blood and bone

monuments I erect, then forget–
the steady draining of days worth
not enough to get me by.

(originally published in Sheila-Na-Gig Online, Spring 2018)

Fantasy After a Few Good Dates

October 13, 2019January 16, 2018 / James Croal Jackson / Leave a comment

I’ll enter our bedroom to open
my laptop where I reserve
a French five-star dinner and
yes we have kids in this dream
the universe theirs to explore
so they start by clanging pots
and pans in the sine band of
our kitchen underbelly worlds
smaller than the space we used
to enclose the first time beneath
the orange blanket hot chocolate
wafting from the kitchen slunk
into pillowcases and snug before
the sun steams yolk in the black
pan gathers its yellow around
the edges waiting patiently to
rise