Stephen Jackson
lovesick | a manifesto i scratched onto the headboard
the lion came at fifteen, world awash in blood and come
morning, how the curtain’s roses rose up to float against
blue sky bleeding through the thinning cloth, too caught
off guard by a new day, to notice him thick in the corner
lovesick, never mind all my ragged notebooks, scrawled
with words i’d written, in honor of him, i knew from the
look in his eyes he’d arrived for mouth, for cock, for ass
still i froze in the heat of those filthy sheets, begged him
to go away, as he shifted, lifted his rawboned body up to
confront me, cough, and mumble, I’m hungry, no angels
left to feed him, how could i not see, he’d come to me at
a moment of desperation, and ravaged by guilt, i offered
to him my flesh, that summer, my manifesto, i scratched
onto the headboard, written with a tireless lust, the roses
crumbling in the summer heat, fireworks still echoing in
the distance, all against us, and no angels left to bless us
the light | as if it knew us, as if we knew each other
the way the light came in the window, as if it knew us
bent, in the throes of life, a carnival ride, so new to us
untethered, at last, scattered horses from the carrousel
surrounded us and cast a spell of freedom, a city, ours
to do in as we pleased, to finally taste a kiss beside an
open window, nearly tumbling down the summer stair
and out into the streets, our chucks, amorously placed
against each inlaid dance step up and down broadway
until, in every little breath of it all, neon or sacred, we
ached to be that light, a circus tent of stars that shined
above us, seattle’s latest lovers, fools, for one another
likened to carneys, brothers, as if we knew each other
Stephen Jackson [he/him] lives and writes in the Pacific Northwest. His work has appeared in a variety of publications including The American Journal of Poetry, Ghost City Review, Impossible Archetype, The Inflectionist Review, Iō Literary Journal, Stone of Madness Press, and S/WORD, as well as on the International Human Rights Art Festival Publishes platform and in The PoetRhy Garden. @fortyoddcrows