Poetry

Decoration Day Grandma gently kneads the dark earth down on the roots of our family. Black soil streaks her gray hair and the stones of sisters and brothers passed. In starts and stops, stories we know are told again, as familiar as this place, these plots, and the soft ‘summer’ wind. Some say that time […]

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 […]

aroundtownpoem #3 six behemoth pink and baby blue trucks lead mrs tuxhorn to her grave © Jacqueline Jackson 2005

The Busy Part of 127 He stopped traffic on the busy part of 127, and then just slowed it down. Sometimes when it’s quiet, I wonder why the whole world hinges on that wet, bedraggled dog, limping, weaving forward and back across the double-yellow line, getting smaller and smaller in my rearview mirror. — Rodd […]

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 […]

An Ode to Spring or Something A strand of duct tape As long as a person, Its tacky life spent Winter-long stolidly loving The plastic shroud around A window air conditioner, Is silvering pure grace In the flipping April breeze. This servant freed (Though anchored, still, lest lost) Surrenders to the whispery That bears its […]

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 © […]

lovepoem # 2 contemplating getting up I designated today as toenail cutting day such a boring chore that even though it takes just a few minutes you need to celebrate it but now I can’t find the clippers so the event will have to be postponed glad I didn’t advertise it when my mom was […]