Jack Jung

GONE BOY

Valorize all forms of trash—it’s this itch
Yet to be fully scratched, oh no it’s not a rash!
Not infectious, I’m vaccinated as all immigrants are.
Migratory birds, however, who knows?
Far from being fresh off the boat this accent
Won’t get accentuated with tenuous symbols
Of an organized system as an intro to the cosmic
Citizenry one enters by swearing off any
Allegiances to foreign princes and potentates
Still asking for mail-in rebates for taxes unpaid.
Position for transference into a positronic brain
Containing composites of what you saw
And saw off the best parts from your dug-up loot
From the cloak-and-dagger graveyard shift
After this flu epidemic has passed the city
(Death has undone the numbers)
And put them together however you see fit.
The world has already passed the vortex.
Auroras are up above the jungle’s leafless canopy.
Tomorrow is another day of one more day.

JACK JUNG is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was a Truman Capote Fellow. His translations of modern Korean poet Yi Sang’s poetry and prose were published in 2020 by Wave Books.