For Just A Second
Glimpses through the trees,
landscapes captured for a second
from the highways,
these are what is left of your
world when you don’t pull over
and you are left with glimpses
soon covered up with
asphalt and concrete
bricks and mortar
and semi-trailers
Sometimes
– David Michael Jackson
***
IN THESE CLUTTERED TIMES
somehow these places eventually lose
identity too in these
cluttered times
passenger creek still weaves through
sugar camp hollow.
there are still legends and indians for
awhile still
for a short while
but up grant’s chapel road
grant’s chapel being of course long gone
there being left only a cemetery with
one
stone
empty coffin
just up from the biggest oak in any parts
which is at the deserted settlement just off the trail of tears
which is now
gone
the oak being there in some wealthy back yard
the settlement cleaned away except in my memory
It was once to be had by slipping around the pond,
the pond being now gone
and the frogs
yet Passenger Creek still weaves it’s history
through sugar camp hollow,
where it has been said Indian ghosts protect confederate gold
for
a
little
while
yet
– David Jackson
***
OH, HELLO
willie and lobo
tonight
and the summer nights oh
the summer nights
the hazy moon says
hello
the last of the brandy says
goodbye
and we come and go and pass into the
summer
nights
and we become the wind in the grasses
and the hot breeze which passes
makes us like leather,
tough enough to take the heat
ah,
bring it on
I’ll sit here and run my toes in the freshly cut grass
and tough it out
– David Jackson.
***
a poem for elisha
my friend he teaches me to be free
he teaches me
to try yes, to simply try
that is all that is required
and I am proud to sit in
his shadow as
the rain falls or
the sun burns my day
I am proud to say
I was not there in the battles
I was not there in the kibbutz
in the dry dusty streets
waiting for the army trucks
waiting for the war
I was not there
my friend was and he speaks for me
and he leads me
beside the still
waters
such is my love
for my friend
– David Jackson
***