CODA

The rest is a sleepwalk, a prelude to the final encounter,
the moment before the car crash,
before the bullet enters the victim’s body,
before the airplane hits ground,
before the bomb ignites at zero,
before that frozen moment in prepetual space,
that last speck in amber,
that moment of total consciousness,
the utter lack of faithlessness. . .
Fight it. Fight this sleep that stops you from taking in everything from living and from remembering.
Fight for every ounce and breath of life, even though most of your life
will be one long struggle to rid yourself of this curse of consciousness,
this consciousness Jean Paul Sartre was
so afraid of,
this life we want so badly to be rid of, and yet this life we’re so
afraid to
leave because it is all we know. Enjoy it, live it, revel in it,
because, my darling,
it has no more meaning than my eyes reflected back in yours, but oh how
we desire it. . .

Originally from Bandung, Indonesia, Jean Jones received a BA in English in 1986 from UNC-Wilmington, and an MFA in Creative Writing: Poetry in 1988 from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. Jean currently teaches Basic Skills at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, North Carolina. He has had two books of poetry published by St. Andrews Press from St Andrews College, North Carolina; the most recent, Birds of Djakarta, was released in 2008.