mineral lit mag
  • Home
  • About/Submissions
  • Masthead
  • Featured Poets Series
    • 3 poems by Chris Prewitt
    • 3 poems by Taylor Byas
    • 3 Poems by David Hanlon
    • 3 poems by Bailey Grey
    • 2 Poems by Seán Griffin
    • 1 Poem by Jarrett Moseley
    • 3 Poems by Hannah Cajandig-Taylor
  • Issues
    • Issue 1
    • Issue 1.5: Hozier-inspired
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 3: Recovery
    • Issue 3.5: Lana Del Rey
    • Special Summer Solstice Prose Issue
    • Issue 4.1
    • Issue 4.2
    • Still Standing
  • Home
  • About/Submissions
  • Masthead
  • Featured Poets Series
    • 3 poems by Chris Prewitt
    • 3 poems by Taylor Byas
    • 3 Poems by David Hanlon
    • 3 poems by Bailey Grey
    • 2 Poems by Seán Griffin
    • 1 Poem by Jarrett Moseley
    • 3 Poems by Hannah Cajandig-Taylor
  • Issues
    • Issue 1
    • Issue 1.5: Hozier-inspired
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 3: Recovery
    • Issue 3.5: Lana Del Rey
    • Special Summer Solstice Prose Issue
    • Issue 4.1
    • Issue 4.2
    • Still Standing
​Every Day is a Lullaby
 
of holy emanation. The world, so elastic
it springs. Rigged to the roots with
 
wonder, I envy you, Blue
Dot. I want to inhabit your reverie, your
 
iris. Teach me weightlessness, & scalding truth.
Your truth—messy origins, & bloodied histories
 
ringing inside of me. With a heavy cough
I could spit out my genealogy—all
 
of whose errors I am. I could
like the mystics, dash into mystery, & be eaten
 
up by visions. But it is your touch I want, stupid
world. To crawl into quiet intimacy
 
with you, almost grazing death.

My Sadness Out of Context
 
Not insomnia, but a desire to braid midnight's
dark into a migraine. Not a tear-
 
drop, no, merely desalination of the eye
sockets. Not a lack of appetite, only the belly
 
practicing solitude. Always, dear friend
 
                               you stand outside
                            the bounds
                      of my
          suffering &
misname it.
 
Now, if you must
 
          be a finger in my eye,
                    grant me the kindness
                              of making it clean.


Pamilerin Jacob is a Nigerian poet whose poems have appeared in Barren Magazine, Agbowó, Poetry Potion, Ghost City Press, Rattle & elsewhere. He was the second runner-up for Sevhage Poetry Prize 2019. Author of the chapbook, Gospels of Depression; he is a staunch believer in the powers of critical thinking, Khalil Gibran’s poetry & chocolate ice-cream. Reach him on Twitter @pamilerinjacob.
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