Tyler Jacobs
WHITE LILIES
There are enough cut flowers
on the kitchen counter and table
to make a man. A man is
a shape filled with quiet
and soil-born heft of light.
Shapes are essence:
Distortion like mother's hum
and what is telling of them--—
Unending rain
falling from distended bellies
of clouds is a form of love.
If the body is not a mass
of color weighed down by air,
it is then pistiled breath kissing
toward hope. Opening themselves
to scores of rushlight,
these flowers also have shape:
A swelling
against a backdrop of peeled
paint—an act of belief,
or violation. Cloth-like and dainty
hissing up pillars of throats.
A distinction between loss
and birth that helps to pretty a room
with draped windows. To keep
light from spilling forth faces:
In time, all windows open.
These leaves are endlessly in blossom.
NOTES ON YESTERDAY
In the dark, we quickly forget how to fall. You learned
Mason jars held light against the cherry tree whose fruit
Filled our stomachs, at which point we realized innocence
Escaped us like the point of night when quiet falls
Too soon. The falling seems as if it never ended. We grew
To stars which fell past the hollow portion of sky as cherry seeds
Scattered the lawn. Water spoiled in the flesh that failed.
I discovered my body alongside
You discovered your body alongside me.
I've never found anything that glowed so brightly before or since.
I've never found anything that glowed so brightly before or since
You discovered your body alongside me.
I discovered my body alongside
Water spoiled in the flesh that failed—scattered the lawn
To stars which fell past the hollow portion of sky as cherry seeds
Grew too soon. The falling seems as if it never ended. We
Escaped us like the point of night when quiet fell
And filled our stomachs. At which point we realized innocence
Held light in Mason jars against the cherry tree whose fruit
Quickly forgot how to fall: In the dark, we learned.
Tyler Michael Jacobs serves as Editor-in-Chief of The Carillon. He is the recipient of the Wagner Family Writing Award Endowment. He has words in, or forthcoming: White Wall Review, Runestone, The Hole in the Head Review, The Good Life Review, Aurora: The Allegory Ridge Poetry Anthology, and Funicular Magazine, among others.