Jacqueline Jackson

aroundthecosmos poem #3 (jamaicanpoem #2) the sun dangling from the schoolroom’s ridgepole is a styrofoam fisherman’s float big and yellow as a grapefruit it sits at the hub of a hurricane- ravaged umbrella the crazy outspread spokes each skewering a planet mercury a small red christmas ornament farther out jupiter a fat papier-mâché breadfruit saturn’s […]

jamaicanpoem #1 the heat is searing but these many-hued glossy-skinned liquid-eyed jamaican schoolkids in tan shirts and trousers in green pleated jumpers and snowy blouses   are like crickets the hotter it gets the higher they leap the shriller they chirp © Jacqueline Jackson 2005

environmentpoem #1 when I turn on the flame beneath my iron frying pan to dry the puddle in the middle so the skillet won’t rust I stand and watch the water shrivel in from the edges like the aral sea © Jacqueline Jackson 2005

clutterpoem #1 you have to look to your heroes mine is nobel laureate alan guth who says I would rather keep a pile of junk assuming there is something there I want than throw the whole thing away and regret it he is pictured in his MIT office awash in a paper sea I am […]

wetlandspoem #1 the waters are returning with the waters the plants with the waters and plants the fish with the waters and plants and fish the birds from the east has come phyllis singing bird danny fire crow from the south from the west lionel little eagle chuck running elk from the north to spread […]

aroundtownpoem #4 speaking of names we have some pretty good ones around here take dusty rhodes at illinois times a common nickname with folks named rhodes maybe with lanes and streets too but our dusty earns hers she kicks up dust then the editor roland klose you like to roll those smooth round o’s around […]

grandchildpoem #2 it’s an odd sensation to be at the helm says my brother-in-law I’m now the oldest of my line I tell him about rachel bustling into daycare this is my grandma she is very old she’s going to die she’s not going to be here very long I think I’ll be around a […]

kinquotepoem # 4 after the killings elspeth six in ’70 said demi was born at oxford megan was born at harvard jilly was born at yale and I was born at kent now we’ve all been born at famous universities © Jacqueline Jackson 2005

aroundthecosmos poem #2 pluto is demoted demoted demoted pluto is demoted let’s dance around the ring we’ll tighten up our kuiper belt kuiper belt kuiper belt we’ll tighten up our kuiper belt and dance around the ring our heads are in the oort cloud oort cloud oort cloud our heads are in the oort cloud […]

kinquote poem # 3 a friend says your poems aren’t profound my dad tells of the city chap who waited by the fence thinking he’d surely gain some weathered wisdom from the grizzled tiller of the soil the farmer paused to turn his team the stranger asked what do you think about when you plow […]

poolpoem #2 I should take my Y membership off my income tax it’s in the pool I percolate the unpaid poems for this publication don’t all those alliterative lines sound like beowulf © Jacqueline Jackson 2005

kitchenpoem #1 I notice I’m having an orange breakfast orange orange orange chunk of butternut squash orange egg yes orange because it’s from a cage-free drug-free antibiotics-free organically-nourished yard hen named heather fedbetter who lives in port washington wisconsin and bids me have an eggsellent day thank you heather and the same to you © […]