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You Are Bad at Singing, I’m Not
James Croal Jackson

You are bad at singing, I’m not
good, either, but I miss you
anyway, off-key since
you left me for the hospital,
not that a doctor should have
to choose, I’m not Pikachu,
I thought we were electric
in the grass, walking
along the tentative ledges
of the city we both moved
to for our jobs, the work
of bettering ourselves
endlessly although there
is a limit— to me, not
you, you are bound for
space, really— every
time I find a four-
leaf clover we arrive
at the atmosphere
and burn the luck
away, superstitions
of longing left
on the ground,
blurry specks.

—
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 Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Little Patuxent Review, and The Round. He edits The Mantle Poetry from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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