Andy Jackson

VINCENT

Listen to Audio Version read by Sean Mahoney.

To most of you, I'm that guy. You know me,
from uhhh somewhere you can't remember.

         I taught parents how to smoke a joint

See me once, I catch your eye. See me again,
I catch your eye, place it in a cage, name it

         to understand what their kids are going through.

and keep it as a pet. I don't want to say what happens
if you see me a third time. Tall is a little wrong –

         Do not – repeat, do not – hold on to the joint.

I'm elongated, with an aristocratic nose,
which means large, and the countenance,

         I took the Ridgemont students on a morgue tour.

I'm told, of a melted Dali clock.
In my neighbourhood back home, you could walk

         Here we have the lungs and the human heart,

down the street and know which village
in Sicily people were from by the smell

         which is actually located in the centre of the chest.

of the tomato sauce. Basil. Mint. Cinnamon.
Metabolism's my back-story. I always have to

         I was at the back of the bus McMurphy drove

keep the horizon close – naps, snacks, coffee,
whatever it takes to keep me going.

         out of the mental institution. Mostly, I smoked,

There's no cure, but with medicine these days I could die of anything.

         speechless. You were with me, weren't you?

Andy Jackson's poetry collection Among the Regulars was shortlisted for the 2011 Kenneth Slessor Prize. He won the 2013 Whitmore Press Manuscript Prize with the thin bridge , and his latest collection is Immune Systems (poems and ghazals on India and medical tourism). Andy has performed at literary events and arts festivals in Australia, India, USA and Ireland. He writes about the poetry of bodily difference at amongther egulars.wordpress.com.