Live Nude Poems

Thrift Store Sweater Threads dangle off the sweater I’ve worn forever, blue and purple billows all across my torso. I can’t just throw away this salvaged dollar from a Goodwill. A cloth can sheath itself on the body and glide forever, walking toward an inevitable unknown destination. The distance is empty space, jammed with ubiquitous sound. I will sew none of it. James Croal Jackson is a Filipino-American poet who works in film production. His latest chapbooks are Count Seeds With Me (Ethel Zine & Micro-Press, 2022) and Our Past Leaves (Kelsay Books, 2021). Recent poems are in Stirring, Vilas Avenue, and *82 Review. He edits The Mantle Poetry from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (jamescroaljackson.com)

Hydrangeas with my arm around yours around mine a garden grows into meadow of petals each day a field a boundless entrance to tomorrow's tomorrow hydrangea petals floating even through the rare rains one white petal for each new year that sings through time to land inside your hand enclosed in mine James Croal Jackson (he/him) is a Filipino-American poet who works in film production. He has two chapbooks (Our Past Leaves, Kelsay Books, 2021 and The Frayed Edge of Memory , Writing Knights, 2017) with one forthcoming: Count Seeds With Me ( Ethel , 2022 ) . He edits The Mantle Poetry from Pittsburgh, PA. ( jamescroaljackson.com )

Condensation We used to be the same, used to dance in living rooms in Grandview houses, drunk on homemade Moscow Mules in copper mugs, and then you said you would no longer drink, but you’d watch with a glass of empty icewater, drip out the fronts of bars without a noise. James Croal Jackson (he/him) has a chapbook,  The Frayed Edge of Memory  (Writing Knights Press, 2017), and poems in  Columbia Journal, Rattle,  and  Reservoir . He edits  The Mantle  (themantlepoetry.com). Currently, he works in the film industry in Pittsburgh, PA. ( jimjakk.com )