Beef Bowl
leaf
of beef
a
bowl
you
hand me
out
of circumstance
up
death’s stairs
straight
from stage
not
from deep
affection
though
perhaps
there
was a hint
of
spice past
fibrous
crunch
that
I ate
clean
inside
that
box
Vacation
I
sit on the beach,
palm
trees nodding
bubbles
in my cup.
Loud
mouths brag
with
sloppy tongues
about
goals and dreams,
who
spent the most,
who
devoured the finest flesh
at
the six-star steakhouse.
They
drone on about
things
I do not grasp,
things
I cannot care
about.
This is
a
place where
I
should be
who
I want to be.
Not
sure
who
that is.
I
am just passing
through.
A Strange Flex
how now I feel nothing
but regret the parking lot
the cold after three hours
at Bodega I watched birds
gather in the night of mind
on a power line connecting
Pittsburgh to Indianapolis
my blood in the gym I wanted
someone to impress walking
around a strange flex
Metamorphosis (Akron)
I
wish I could
emulate
cicadas. All
opportunity
and longing.
All
wait and song.
Hard
to love
anything
green-
winged.
My newness
does
not understand
me.
I want to understand
newness.
Every
few years I come
back
with questions.
I wish
I knew
what
I was asking.
Saffron Sectional
on nights
with DQ on the white
comforter on my chest,
garlic on our breath
after a birthday
dinner for your dad
at Casbah, where we ordered
cavatappi in a sea of tomato
butter, several soft islands
floating ahead of us, chunks
of fennel sausage among them.
DQ’s wet nose taps my knuckle
and my calf drapes over your
ankle on the iconic saffron
sectional in our living room,
in this moment mundane
as DQ swats at my
writing hand. In time,
not too far into the future,
I will think about this living
room, these nights,
the dark blue walls
we painted carefully,
this cat on my chest,
this love– and hunger
terribly.
.jpg)
James Croal Jackson is a Filipino-American poet working in film production. His latest chapbook is A God You Believed In (Pinhole Poetry, 2023). Recent poems are in The River, Mangrove Review, and Packingtown Review. He edits The Mantle Poetry from Nashville, Tennessee. jamescroaljackson.com