I Remember Jackson

I remember Jackson

The bitter
Long goodbye
That look
In your eye
When you
Promised what was
Beyond your power
To give.

How could you love me
Yet betray me
As easily
As a butcher
Dispatches a calf?

I hardly expected a
Judas kiss
To taste of salt and lime.

I remember Jackson.

The heat on my shoulders
Grit under my boots
Sweat streaming my eyes
The dull ache
Beneath my sternum
The way you turned your face from me
When I drove the question into you
The way a man drives a fence post
Into clay
Into your eyes, asking
“Did you?”

It took time to hate you.

But it began
There.
The ignition sparked the fury
There.

Oh, yes…
I remember Jackson.