Headfirst
by James Croal Jackson

     
    Is it the speed 
    or the illusion of going 
    somewhere that drives 
    to the spare part of home 
    swathed in darkness    
    
    I point my guitar at you 
    and call you over I am split 
    screen with water droplets
    just a fragment of 
    the room I visited earlier    
    
    the stairs behind you 
    beside the brotherly vines  
    that live in the modern garden
    
    
    
    
    
Packingtown Review – Vol. 23, Spring 2025

James Croal Jackson is a Filipino-American poet who works in film production. His latest chapbooks are A God You Believed In (Pinhole Poetry, 2023) and Count Seeds With Me (Ethel Zine & Micro-Press, 2022). Recent poems are in Ghost City Review, Little Patuxent Review, and Pirene’s Fountain. He edits The Mantle Poetry from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. jamescroaljackson.com

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