Sylvia Jones
GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN DAY 15
Are you now, or
have you
within the last ten
years, been a member
of any organization
which to your knowledge
at the time of member
ship advocates or has
as one of its objectives
been the overthrow of
the government of the
united states or the gov’t
of the state of Georgia
by force or violence?
GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN DAY 27
I need a hole
in the ceiling
like I need a new
hole in my head
I don’t believe
in user
era blind
suffering
narratives
you brushing
your teeth
is a blood letting
ritual but for snot
I remember living
in a military
country but
I don’t remember
those tears
only aloe vera
and then tears, and
then intermittently
we was capable of being
merciful
erstwhile never forgetting
those words you couldn't
remember, gee whiz how
absconded, steely, and
brilliant life feels
in a garden of
carnage
DON’T FORGET THE APPLE PANCAKES
Should be a crime to know
Jane Jacobs is rolling in her
grave over that too-slight
West Village margin Far be
it for me to comment on the
grotesque overrun of tech
bros and finance brats
affirming what was not
so long ago a reliable
left liberal enclave
Someone in a study
next to me is speaking
in what seems like Mandarin,
but they just said three times
adderall, adderall, adderall
although it was just me
drinking a yuzu spritz
and the couple down-
stairs on the steps talking
about venison with romanesco
A hassle-less energy concedes
our mutual fate and the silver-
lining on the dog shit stained
sidewalk is that we can get
what we need without
giving it away If only
there were an Audi
blue wagon crash
noise only once every
other hour like clockwork
with the cops chasing
three dudes down the alley
all we can see and hear is
get on the ground
I’m looking at the other
black person here, his name
is Jamaal There’s a white guy
on stage puppeteering a rubber dog
Last night I dreamt I got a hand-
written rejection letter for some
poems I didn’t remember submitting
and then I went on a two week trip
to a beach in Greece but realized
when I got there I didn’t pack any
bathing suits
IBUPROFEN FOR THE GRID
Our dripped out vintage baby
has the face of a masculine
betty boop which can become
a fundamental obstacle to human
flourishing if you’re not lucky
enough to find yourself in an
aisle at the grocer or deli
where there’s chocolate, not
up the street from us, where
they got the chocolate locked up.
WE’D BEEN ACQUIRING PAYPHONES
In these far away difficult
places, we often think
this mistake in scarcity
is what lead us here
is the thing we must
challenge. In the 1930s,
requesting dog soup
was a way for asking
for a glass of water. We
were behind by a good
amount of time. In a
world of sliding, change
moves at the speed of
trust. The energy is a race
we are losing, we’ve already
lost muscle memory. Wild
how the day after the peace
treaty signing, somebody has always
gotten shot. You experience your
victims faces in dreams and
experiences you haven’t even
had yet. There are many things
one should think about when
engaging with the outside cold weather.
I was cash poor at the time
and chances are more partial
to an email about money,
zoom class and emails
about money, two opposite
sides of the same spectrum.
Has anyone ever paid you to
go look at an apartment?
Be prepared to reroute
your route, we have
been victims of that
start ramp. Somebody
had a key made and it
was winter and the
house was a tomb. A
scintilla sized ray of
hope abating in a
strenuous activity most
of us aren’t used to—my
lawyers were good, I just
wasn’t listening. When I got
counted, I was blacked out
talking on camera, but
the science has changed so
now I gotta go and get this
jail off me—
It was winter, I was
running from home botanically
speaking.
Sylvia Jones lectures at George Washington University and serves as poetry editor for Black Lawrence Press—she also reads for Ploughshares. Her debut collection —Television Fathers was released in 2024 through Meekling Press. The followup, Dope Calisthenics, will be released this fall with Relegation Books. She earned her MFA from American University and lives in Baltimore, MD.