What Shall I Wear
By David Michael Jackson
I checked my closet today
Will I wear my feelings on my sleeve
Will it be my waistcoat of sadness
with the hopeless cape of yesterday
I would wear instead a shirt of love
with a coat of pure kindness
and shoes of a good journey
and gloves of giving
I look into a grey sky
and ask for help
with my wardrobe
This corn is just corn
and the words are just words
sitting on a page like a barn in a field
and behind the barn, a boy
among the chickens
with a stick for gathering the cows
on a path worn by cows walking in a line.
Heaa up there
He waves the stick.
The sun shines among shadows.
The wind blows.
The birds don’t rustle
because they’ve seen this painting.
The corn is just corn
and the words are just words
sitting on a page like the plow
being pulled pulled by the mule.
Gee
Haw
Whoa
Come up there.
The news hit hard again
as he shuffled in the line and
searched his pockets
for tickets, his mind for answers.
“They cannot be so stupid as to return
to those days”
His face grew redder and redder,
His hair started to smoke.
The smoke rose into the grey sky.
Suddenly his entire head burst into flames.
He ran down the street, No
No
No”
what does it matter
he says
we are all headed
down that black hole,
down the drain of
the universe
what does it matter
he says
We are all sycamore logs
beside a river
bleached by a dying sun.
All of our Picassos will go down
that black hole
like they were a painting of grapes
from the Goodwill
that you bought for the frame.
what does it matter
he says
we have laid black walnuts on the road
and our hands are stained
from gathering them.
We have gathered flowers for the table.
There is a path in the woods
and children explore it,
searching for something.
Black Hole Poem C. 2021 David Michael Jackson
Dave M Jackson is the Admin at Artvilla.com where his works are featured extensively.
Amparo Arrospide (Argentina) is a Spanish poet and translator. She has published seven poetry collections, Mosaicos bajo la hiedra, Alucinación en dos actos algunos poemas, Pañuelos de usar y tirar, Presencia en el Misterio, En el Oido del Viento, Hormigas en Diáspora and Jaccuzzi, as well as poems, short stories and articles on literary and film criticism in anthologies and in both national and foreign magazines.
She has received numerous awards. Editor’s Note: see also Poetry, National Literature Prize 2018, Francisca Aguirre, Translated from Spanish by Amparo Arróspide & Robin Ouzman Hislop Her latest work Valle Tiétar is published by El sastre de Apollinaire Poesía,32 www.elsastredeapollinaire.com