James Croal Jackson
Seesaw (California / Ohio)
I wanted to be a wayward lasso,
to toss and be tossed.
Racetrack for the rainy season.
Horsetail-whipped.
Grieve not the slobbering mouth
of distance. I wanted a different
chance. Someone else,
or no one– there, entwined,
I’m sorry. You said there
was a way to make long
distance work and I was
no one in return but another.
Already, then, I was
galloping to the dark place
of convincing the pavement’s
otherwise steadiness. Did not
wish an earthquake to settle
my legs with falling,
so eager was I
to forget the other path.
James Croal Jackson (he/him) has a chapbook, The Frayed Edge of Memory (Writing Knights Press, 2017), and poems in Pacifica, Good Works Review, and indefinite space. He edits The Mantle Poetry (themantlepoetry.com). Currently, he works in the film industry in Pittsburgh, PA.