James Croal Jackson
How I am right now is a golden field
(head down letting myself feel
so much a stingray ascends out
of me and swims into sky).
I cannot identify the plants
I am masking my sadness in. Orange-
capped mushroom head
with dropping greens. Are you a fan
of James Jean? His paintings
melt me into a sludge
of vines. Life
has moved slow
but I want everything
to be slower. A psychic
once told me I will live
to be eighty-two
which is how old my father
and his father were when
they passed so I have twenty-
nine thousand days at most
and rarely will I sit
beside a mountain.
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).