NOCTURNAL WINTER FEATURES

DIAMONDS * GOLD * GUNS * FLATSCREENS 

the pawnshop neon bleeds. 

A bartender at a franchised tavern 

loved for fried poultry  

knocks a hole in my thoughts— 

“Nother Crown and Corona?” she inquires.  

Despite the pingy medium that has most  

recently colonized vinyl, this playlisted band’s  

lead crooner and guitarist have discovered  

how to transmit an escape-laden grace. 

Those parking lot headlights lose nerve 

during such fat, many-minded snowfall.  

Again, I dream of being a beautifully shouldered child 

who quickly declines unimaginative crimes. 

 

 

About the Poem

Drafting this poem, I wanted to portray the coarse beauty of a Rust Belt city in winter. The poem ended up featuring some of capitalism’s aggressions against landscape and against human tenderness.

 

About the Poet

Marcus Jackson is an award-winning poet and a visual artist whose poems and photographs have appeared in such publications as The American Poetry Review, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Magazine. His second book of poems, entitled Pardon My Heart (Northwestern University Press), was released in 2018. Jackson’s forthcoming book of street portraits and poems, Love’s Austere and Lonely Offices, will be out in June 2026. Jackson lives with his wife and child in Columbus, Ohio, and directs the creative writing MFA at Ohio State.