I didn’t like a lotta shit going on you know
daddy was an alcoholic
all his buddies still remember me
cause I be in the joints while he was drinking
shooting craps or whatever they doing
daddy just wanna boy
all them Korean costumes are boys’ costumes in them pictures
Like hanbuk…hanbok?
yeah, that’s them the one with the peak
them’s boys clothes
mama wanted a boy
but the psychic told her if
you carry a boy your husband will die
dad almost drowned in Korea
mama always like them psychics
Born and raised in Topeka, Kansas, Gary Jackson is the author of the poetry collection Missing You, Metropolis, which received the 2009 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. His forthcoming book origin story is due out Fall 2021. His poems have appeared in numerous journals including Callaloo, The Sun, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Copper Nickel. He’s been published in Shattered: The Asian American Comics Anthology and was featured in the 2013 New American Poetry Series by the Poetry Society of America. He teaches in the MFA program as an associate professor at the College of Charleston.
