Lodestar Quarterly

Lodestar Quarterly
Figure reaching for a star Issue 13 • Spring 2005 • Poetry

Transitory Floats at the Bottom of the Pool

Stacy Nathaniel Jackson

1.

Let's say Ralph Ellison's invisible man woke up a woman
Hard to ignore it (don't you think?) hard to ignore that panic

floating up to the bottom where the other sex lives, unsafe
as latex paint poured down a storm drain in the middle
of the night --

2.

You fill me
like drops, gum drops
grape, lemon, cherry & lime, little sugar dumplings
pliable as Play-Doh
lodged between my teeth --

You fill me like feet
spreading in black patent leather shoes
heels turned over too many times,
arches flattening when the foot strikes ground

As if this isn't enough, I press you
from the hollows of my bones,

point toward magnetic north & try to swim

Stacy Nathaniel Jackson is an African American / Filipino transman residing in San Francisco. His work has appeared in SoMa Literary Review and The Big Ugly Review. He is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. His community involvement has included board seats on the San Francisco LGBT Community Center Project, the literary journal ZYZZYVA, and mayoral appointment to San Francisco's Transgender Civil Rights Implementation Task Force.

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