Joshua [Every Fourth of July] by Stephen Jackson

​Joshua [Every Fourth of July]


Here, in this Seattle, it doesn’t seem possible, so many 
changes ago, yet I know every nook and cranny of every 
memory we shared, buried under new buildings, beside 

those still exposed, where bushes and trees now grow 
out of any proportion to how I once recalled them, slight 
changes to the light from the life we lived back in the day 

but Joshua, the blackberries waste no time, reminding me 
of the way we loved, covering every surface they can find 
with a kiss of blue-black juice — and the prick of time

​

Stephen Jackson lives and writes in the Pacific Northwest. He is the originator of the Seattle small press So Many Birds publishing (SMBp), which produced the literary magazine Harness, and the biannual youth-focused chapbook Future+Present. His poems have most recently appeared or are forthcoming in The American Journal of Poetry, Chronotope, Dream Noir, The Fictional Café, Grey Sparrow Journal, IHRAF Publishes, Impossible Archetype, and Nightingale & Sparrow. Please follow him at https://twitter.com/fortyoddcrows

---