ANNA JACKSON
trippy
this bird you let under your shirt the sheet
of shirt a sky so close its
trippy eyes
on me you try to keep it light deny
the weight of feeling just a skitter meets
your skin and if it hurts you
asked for it you’re asking for it with
your eyes on mine you tease
the bird to bite you harder
fine tune your pain till it’s the perfect fit
this bird it should be soaring
like a god into the sky it makes me want
to shout to sing this bird
it should be pouring out an ecstasy of song
it should it should it should
should should should should should should
should should should should should
should should should should
should should
should
Listen to Anna Jackson read Trippy
north, attracted
If I am north attracted to your south
then I am south as well
attracted and repelled
and further if we understand
permeability
to measure how extreme
is the capacity within the self to harbour
a magnetic force
then I am permeable
to the inverse ratio of your perfection
and the din
that I feel in my teeth at this
attraction and repulsion can
be heard across the class and out
to space where NASA streams “Across
the Universe” and where it is
my passion which has some distant
form of life perplexed I did not know
pain
could be so complex
being cold
I’ll time it so that you’re already there
across the field from me not
seeing me arriving here to take a place
on the far side of those high flames
between us here
where
pools of water shine
their own red light with the reflected flame
so cold
I’m stiff and yet so hot across
my face as if I’m blushing still from a forgotten
slight and now a dozen gulls circle
the sky above me
lifting soaring pulling all
my feelings taut
like music with no fall
you used to hold me
like that once and I on this side
of the fire
will still love you as long
as
it keeps burning
then I’m through
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna Jackson lives in Island Bay, Wellington, and lectures in English at Victoria University. Her latest poetry collection is Pasture and Flock: New and Selected Poems (AUP, 2018). For more on her work, go to www.annajackson.nz.