Poetry: Selections from Jacob R. Moses

Overlooked

Tried to find an oasis

In which I irrigated tears

And all I found was anger

Eroding my judgment

Mistrust amid the mornings

Where my insecurities

Do shooters in my

Shivering subconscious

Inebriated every sunrise

Until I lighten the darkness

With milk and sugar and

Even then I am still hollow

Sundown creeps around

My window as sadness

Directs the traffic swerving

Around my inadequacy

Concluding the night by

Aligning five green squares

In the hopes that maybe I

Still have a way with words

But it’s only now they come to me

And only now that I am accepting

Ebbing and flowing of instability

Flotsam and jetsam of disability

I’ve attended more funerals than I

Ever danced at weddings and

Not even electric shocks can

Make profound trauma slide

Shuffling through hallways

And stairwells and tunnels will

Bring me back to a thick fog

Where I thought I’d find love

I am not okay with pretending to

Be okay at every bloody moment

And I deplore the normalcy that

Comes with the pressure of hiding

I am always hiding while I am seeking

I am always seeking to find myself

I am always found somewhere

I am always where you last looked

Ballade: Not Worth Mentioning

Enveloped in my consciousness

Resides responses to trauma

Attention seeking, noxiousness

Obsession, paying back karma

Conformity will harm us

Flying on dementia’s wing

No intention to charm us

These secrets not worth mentioning

Patience of St. Barnabas

Eventually calms us

Shell intricate like conches

Brash like Louie Di Palma

Depression I will harness

But now I refuse to sing

Can’t rejoice, too much carnage

These secrets not worth mentioning

Lacking so much confidence

Wheels spinning in my dharma

Sanctimony in hospice

Sleeping next to this dogma

Surfing waves, I’m a scarred mess

Can’t manifest anything

Smoking in a charred duress

These secrets not worth mentioning

Currency I will invest

Peace, bond upon which I cling

One wish, not to be intense

These secrets not worth mentioning

Digital Zero

If at any point

My efforts falter

I will come full circle

As I embark on a

New journey where

My edges are chiseled

Jagged with a slash

Through the heart

Of my central vacuum

I am in a digital wasteland

As I harbor the scar on

My chest where a secret

Compartment locks the

Structure of avoidance

In a perpetual state

Of sanctuary within

This pixelated inertia

Competing for extra lives

Jacob R. Moses is a poet and spoken word artist from Staten Island, NY. Publications featuring his work span the globe. He is the author of the full-length poetry book, Grimoire (iiPublishing, 2021). In 2023, he graduated with an MA in English and Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University.