{"id":12126,"date":"2018-03-14T13:31:20","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T11:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=12126"},"modified":"2018-03-13T01:35:07","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T23:35:07","slug":"poems-by-james-croal-jackson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=12126","title":{"rendered":"poems by James Croal Jackson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Umbrella<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the lips of thunder, we never feel full<\/p>\n

as rain slips from our mouths\u2013 the brick<\/p>\n

streets are slicked with histories we will<\/p>\n

not yet slip. Sediment lodged in the curb<\/p>\n

will displace in time. Our tongues slicken<\/p>\n

in the dry we create so we thirst for the<\/p>\n

wet we tried simply to shield from ourselves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Office Job (August 18, 2017)<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The cat purrs, content<\/p>\n

on his own, clawing my blanket<\/p>\n

that rests peacefully and soft.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

meanwhile, I entertain fantasies<\/p>\n

about quitting my job again\u2013<\/p>\n

every day, the drab walls<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

say nothing to me.<\/p>\n

the squeaky chair says<\/p>\n

too much. Another paycheck<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

arrives, not enough to sustain<\/p>\n

me past the day\u2019s bills. I work<\/p>\n

for the grim reaper, ghastly<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and gray, worm-smile rotting.<\/p>\n

There is a scythe to my head<\/p>\n

when I sleep that I set the night<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

before but I can\u2019t even sleep<\/p>\n

long enough to meet it.<\/p>\n

The cockroaches share my bed,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and I know they will make it<\/p>\n

out of this alive, whether<\/p>\n

nuclear war or work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tallboy<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I exhale<\/p>\n

into chasm<\/p>\n

of beer can<\/p>\n

bottomless<\/p>\n

lung<\/p>\n

aluminum<\/p>\n

as I am<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Checking the Mail<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

it\u2019s a series of bills all this money money money<\/p>\n

allegedly turning void in wallet into all this good<\/em><\/p>\n

shield or beating heart or net but I\u2019m getting your<\/p>\n

gray hairs you pick in the mirror how they seem<\/p>\n

to crawl from the bathroom floor & appear as the<\/p>\n

plague on my head O corporation & government<\/p>\n

gavel held to my sensitive nodes I sniff envelopes<\/p>\n

which smell of corpses that may all be my own<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How to Be Proud<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As I waited for my burger at Northstar<\/p>\n

I saw they had copies of The Bitter Oleander,<\/em><\/p>\n

and on the first page was the work<\/p>\n

of my first poetry professor.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Buzzing on metaphor,<\/p>\n

I sent an email to tell her<\/p>\n

that they\u2019ve also published me before<\/p>\n

but it has been a couple of years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She told me<\/p>\n

to sleep it off.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Umbrella   In the lips of thunder, we never feel full as rain slips from our mouths\u2013 the brick streets are slicked with histories we will not yet slip. Sediment lodged in the curb will displace in time. Our tongues slicken in the dry we create so we thirst for the wet we tried simply […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1307,77],"tags":[1308,1123,1320],"class_list":["post-12126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egophobia-53","category-english","tag-egophobia-53","tag-english","tag-james-croal-jackson"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DakB-39A","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12127,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12126\/revisions\/12127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}