Five Untitled Poems
what has transpired:
contamination made home to concave wills revised
or otherwise occupied
cognizance of struggle as soft breath
animal, embryonic
a repurposed effigy
again dipped in oil
awakened
the perennial inverse of dreaming:
a waste that cannot be discarded
where admissions are not made
cannot be made
refuse
to
exist
all parties
acutely
roam the earth
costumed and wanting
a terrible justice
quiet tremors
rage
all parties
rage
the point of all this:
to draw an assemblage
of confessions said
long before me
of sobs dropped
from mouths
in private
soaked up
with rags
and wrung out
all excess
just drainage
i excess
i ask how my feet do not lead me to your neck
[a sliver [a pink and violent cusp [i ask how
you get away [how the cart carrying your bones
does not erupt in flames [does not sweat with remorse
[i ask how you might sit sterile cushioned [how you
might glide [how you might move without
fracture [banished [whole [i ask how i might [and do
[and yes still now [see blood or inconvenience but
never death [how i so soon am scattered scraps of pine
reeling on the side of the road [i ask how i [of that
terrifying absence of rage [lull my remainders
towards a nameless and burning light
i imagine your memories. reiterations of feelings that no longer feel. tired of reliving. worn out,
flexible. almost beaten in. you might say broken in.
if memory could be pulled. into wanting curves. paper folded into. capture. bereft. i could.
imagine.
we
[splinter
from soil
dance down into our
deposits
[farewell
to all lingering
[ground
[once ground
once
nearly
[rising
[
our horses turn
to
watch
the sky
Jacq is a queer writer of Jewish and Mexican descent living in the Bay Area. They are a high school dropout and first-generation college transfer student. Jacq is a graduate student in the Creative Writing MFA program at San Francisco State University, where they are a William Dickey Poetry Fellow. Their writing has appeared in local and national publications, including Peach Mag, Bettering American Poetry, Columbia Poetry Review, Apogee, Berkeley Poetry Review, and elsewhere. Jacq’s first chapbook of poems, Greater Grave, was published by The Operating System in 2018. Find them online at greyja.com.
