Jackson with his poison needle
pointing it out to heaven's claw,
scrapping around with dimensions
too numerous & vast to fit there
on the whiteboard of his sorrows.
Who is this Jackson guy?
Jackson with a waitress ? a lucky day full of unknown future intimidations.
Jackson a disabled member of the bourgeoisie, constitutionally unable to sustain the pretence. Middle class essentials taunt but release him.
A father who self harms? Does music sooth his troubled soul?
Or is he as lost as the places so long forgotten they have lost their nametags.
As everything approaches darkness, he trades in lonely undescribed habits. Was there a wife? Were there children?
He?s left them somewhere else. Best of all now he keels over. He?s the could-have-been or should-have-been but glad he wasn?t.
Joker. Ghost. Threat. After-image.
Jackson could be calling out to you
or he could be weaving a subtle magic.
Brendan Cleary is a highly respected poet and teacher of the craft of poetry. He has published four full length collections including White Bread and ITV: Selected Poems 1985 ? 1990 (Wide Skirt Press), The Irish Card and Sacrilege (Bloodaxe), and stranger in the house (Wrecking Ball Press).
His poetry is characterised by a forceful lyricism combined with an unflinching gaze into the heart of the everyday.
