poetry by Julian Jaffe
POMPEIAN GRAFFITI, REVISITED
*All italicized lines in this poem have been included verbatim from a research catalogue of ancient Pompeian graffiti. Each link included in the corresponding footnote leads to the page accessed from this research catalogue.
All I ask of the world is this : Let the bears devour me [1]
the fact is, people have always been on the finite end of things
scribbling their ephemera on limestone facades struggling to
remember the chafe of their last fragment sentence before the brain plies
itself with more meaningless butter to churn
How soft is violence?[2] How rare the chance encounter
of two complete strangers making classroom
eyes
across the room of time?
the dark shock of your bush the open mouth of my mouth
how casual the whole affair has always been
Lasius is a pervert[3] / Hyacinthus was here[4]
When you stand on the fire escape I take my good hand and
fuck myself in view of the street When the
weight of concern weighs down my limbs I use
this left hand to let the deep waters overflow[5]
the post-emetic acid flashback of all my old lover-associations
discourses honeycomb all salmagundi on the
earthenware tile the shatter razing my temple crimson and
dizzies my walking all meaningless discourses from yesterday
enlightenment comes in an instant —
the inky top hat that covers the white bunny rabbit removed to release
thousands of doves
your cow eyes slit open. you stitch to my words and spool
unendingly between the reversible cloth of timelines until
you can see the text from the inside. Their walls might read:
Here, love will be wise[6] Here, it will reckon you
1. AGP-EDR153853, The Ancient Graffiti Project, <https://ancientgraffiti.org/Graffiti/graffito/AGP-EDR153853> [accessed: 20 Sep 2024]
2. AGP-EDR140980, The Ancient Graffiti Project, <https://ancientgraffiti.org/Graffiti/graffito/AGP-EDR140980> [accessed: 19 Sep 2024]
3. AGP-EDR154575, The Ancient Graffiti Project, <https://ancientgraffiti.org/Graffiti/graffito/AGP-EDR154575> [accessed: 20 Sep 2024]
4. AGP-EDR140152, The Ancient Graffiti Project, <https://ancientgraffiti.org/Graffiti/graffito/AGP-EDR140152> [accessed: 20 Sep 2024]
5. AGP-EDR175929, The Ancient Graffiti Project, <https://ancientgraffiti.org/Graffiti/graffito/AGP-EDR175929> [accessed: 20 Sep 2024]
6. AGP-EDR140135, The Ancient Graffiti Project <https://ancientgraffiti.org/Graffiti/graffito/AGP-EDR140135> [accessed: 19 Sep 2024]
Julian Jaffe (he/him) is an autistic, Jewish trans man writing music and poetry in Brooklyn, NY. Poet Aditi Machado has described his writing as “richly, eclectically sensory, full of wit and wonder and lusty delight in language…flexible and formally inventive.” He has won awards with The Academy of American Poets, The University of Cincinnati, and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. His work has appeared in The Academy of American Poets, Writer’s Foundry Review, and Short Vine Literary Journal.
Other work by Julian Jaffe: “SHAPESHIFTER” and “TRANSFEMME MEETS NARCISSUS” (Issue 4)