At the filling station on San Pablo & 34th Ave
by MJ JONES
Black folk scream at each other –
off some poison swallowed to
bring back rainbow soap colors.
It shatters my psyche
to a ragged rattled breath,
sets my teeth on edge,
makes me squeeze the nozzle
that much harder.
Pumping gas wasn’t always a trigger.
On pit stops headed for Philly, we kids hopped out
to stretch our daddylong legs, got
high off gasoline fumes, stuffed faces
with beef jerky & pork rinds greasing
thick petroleum on our lips –
On special days we’d go through carwashes.
Pops became a pirate
and the huge tentacles
scrubbing down the car’s sides
lathered Leviathans
we raised swords to.
And there’d be screaming.
Tear-streaked laughter & Lemonheads.
That soursweet.
by MJ JONES
Black folk scream at each other –
off some poison swallowed to
bring back rainbow soap colors.
It shatters my psyche
to a ragged rattled breath,
sets my teeth on edge,
makes me squeeze the nozzle
that much harder.
Pumping gas wasn’t always a trigger.
On pit stops headed for Philly, we kids hopped out
to stretch our daddylong legs, got
high off gasoline fumes, stuffed faces
with beef jerky & pork rinds greasing
thick petroleum on our lips –
On special days we’d go through carwashes.
Pops became a pirate
and the huge tentacles
scrubbing down the car’s sides
lathered Leviathans
we raised swords to.
And there’d be screaming.
Tear-streaked laughter & Lemonheads.
That soursweet.
MJ Jones is a poet & parent living in Oakland, CA. Their work is featured or forthcoming at Anomaly, Kissing Dynamite, Rigorous Mag, & Borderlands Texas Poetry Review. They are an Assistant Poetry Editor at Foglifter Press. MJ has received fellowships from the Hurston/Wright Foundation, SF Writers Grotto, VONA, & Kearny Street Workshop. They are currently the Community Engagement Graduate Fellow in the MFA program at Mills College.