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Loom Poem

Jake Skeets

I window words into a name
a light kiss on his chest
I trace
the letter t
its seep whisper
morning scatter
mosquito grasses
curtained yucca
I snakeweed another name
collapse worn tongues into hymns
memories against
pink lights against

bone
bone

pink lights against
memories against
collapse worn tongues into hymns
I snakeweed another name
curtained yucca
mosquito grasses
morning scatter
its seep whisper
the letter t
I trace
a light kiss on his chest
I window words into a name

Jake Skeets’s debut collection, Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers (Milkweed, 2019), was selected by Kathy Fagan for the 2018 National Poetry Series.

Themes

About this Poem

“Loom poems were a way back into writing poetry—for me. During the pandemic, like everyone else, I had a hard time writing. So I began revising. I went through all the poems from my first book and revised them. Some of them became these loom poems. Inspired by Diné weavers who weave from the bottom up and often mirror the top and bottom halves. Where they meet is a kind of horizon. It’s an old arithmetic that helped me find my way back into poetry.”
—Jake Skeets

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More by this poet

Anthropocenic

: when the nearest light is miles away yet
and adorned on the night is a lightning bug

Jake Skeets

2023

In the Fields

^{with lines from D. A. Powell}

We unyoke owl pellets from marrow
in desert meadow. His mouth pigeon eye

a torch, womb turned flower. He, still a boy,
dug from cactus skull. Undress into bark

beetles. He unlearns how to hold a fist
with my hand. Bursts into dandelion

Jake Skeets

2019

Drunktown

Indian Eden. Open tooth. Bone Bruise. This town split in two.
Clocks ring out as train horns, each hour hand drags into a screech –
iron, steel, iron. The minute hand runs its fingers

Jake Skeets

2018

Poems

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Loom Poem

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