Lucas Jacob
Defense
“…[Y]ou know what [Saddam Hussein] did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so
good.”
--Donald J. Trump, July 4, 2016
No one attends the weather-warped
display counter of what was a newsstand
on the corner. The wares arrayed there--
a paperweight cityscape from before the fall,
an ivoried Madonna cradling the space
emptied of the child, and four volumes thick
with moisture-bloated pages ever expanding--
can be purchased at any time
by anyone credulous enough to slap
his fear down like currency on the wood.
Yes, it is a he, nearly every time.
The furtive approach, after many
passings-by as if by chance. The sidelong glance.
A watcher at any of the grimy windows
that moan in the winds of this place
will sense the shudder not quite buried
by the shabby overcoat. The frisson
of feeling himself in danger. A grainy
black-and-white projection of the limited
imagination of the confidence man.
good.”
--Donald J. Trump, July 4, 2016
No one attends the weather-warped
display counter of what was a newsstand
on the corner. The wares arrayed there--
a paperweight cityscape from before the fall,
an ivoried Madonna cradling the space
emptied of the child, and four volumes thick
with moisture-bloated pages ever expanding--
can be purchased at any time
by anyone credulous enough to slap
his fear down like currency on the wood.
Yes, it is a he, nearly every time.
The furtive approach, after many
passings-by as if by chance. The sidelong glance.
A watcher at any of the grimy windows
that moan in the winds of this place
will sense the shudder not quite buried
by the shabby overcoat. The frisson
of feeling himself in danger. A grainy
black-and-white projection of the limited
imagination of the confidence man.
Biography
Lucas Jacob's poetry and prose have appeared in more than 50 journals, including Southwest Review, Barrow Street, and Hopkins Review. He has work forthcoming in RHINO and Cherry Tree, among others. His first full-length poetry collection, a finalist for Eyewear Publishing’s Beverly Prize, is forthcoming in 2019. In 2015 his chapbook A Hole in the Light was published by Anchor & Plume Press.
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