Force Field

By James Croal Jackson

Wherever I walk is without 

consequence. Skid Row, 

alleyways, abandoned
lots of Walmarts. I was a kid

just wandering.
Believing I was in

the Mark Strand 

poem. I thought

the absence of field
was wherever

I occupied.

I’ve learned the half of me

that's white is 

what has made me 

walk so 
fearlessly

alone.

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James Croal Jackson (he/him) is a Filipino-American poet. He has two chapbooks, Our Past Leaves (Kelsay Books, 2021) and The Frayed Edge of Memory (Writing Knights Press, 2017), with recent poems in White Wall Review, Subnivean, and Hello America. He edits The Mantle Poetry (themantlepoetry.com) from Pittsburgh, PA. (jamescroaljackson.com)