What wrings into drain
never goes away.
I scrub orange-brown walls,
my fingernails scrunched
with other people’s food.
This memory collecting–
another dip
in a murky red bucket.
--
James Croal Jackson is a Filipino-American poet working in film production. His latest chapbook is A God You Believed In (Pinhole Poetry, 2023). Recent poems are in ITERANT, Stirring, and The Indianapolis Review. He edits The Mantle Poetry from Nashville, Tennessee. (jamescroaljackson.com)