Read More: A brief interview with Lucas Jacob
Threat
“We cannot allow a beachhead of terrorism to form inside America.” –Donald J. Trump, February 28, 2017
Everyone agrees: we are passing
a bitter season, cold-shouldering
past one another as if our tracks
once laid at our heels will abide
and show themselves straight
should we lose our way in the dark of day.
Danger lies only in hesitation. To be sure
is to be true. A canny proposition,
this consensus that everyone
is equally aggrieved by every storm.
It implicates even the crocuses,
just here in the mud-and-mulch bed
in the lee of the house. Their truth, too,
must be relative, no more valid
than some un-flowering at work
in another small yard, some not-poking-through
in an annual act of defiance,
an anti-coloring of dark, wet earth
with pastel wisps of dawn. The non-bulbs
that dis-announce the coming of spring
were not plopped, with dirt and a little hope,
by gardeners never down on their knees,
in holes just big enough to cradle the hearts
of all those things that would reach for the light.
Winner
“My whole life is about winning.” –Donald J. Trump, December 2015
That oily puddle you’re standing in,
that’s the rainbow you desired
in a package you can afford.
The cracked ground between us is yours […]
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Ban
“They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us [sic].” –Donald J. Trump, June 16, 2015
With your hand, sketch on the air a door
at arm’s length. Describe its lock
as a toy-chest key hole sized to the space
between thumb and forefinger.
If you are in, turn the key against clouds
like smoke-tailed dogs and breezes […]
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Lucas Jacob’s poetry and prose have appeared in journals including Southwest Review, Barrow Street, Western Humanities Review, and Birmingham Poetry Review. His first chapbook, A Hole in the Light, was published by Anchor & Plume Press in 2015. He studied English and African-American Studies at Carleton College, and then did his Master’s in writing and literature at Temple University. He is now a high-school teacher and K-12 writing-instruction consultant based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Jacob’s first full-length collection is slated to be published by Eyewear Publishing in 2019.
Read More: A brief interview with Lucas Jacob