Last Look at Our Room at the Honeymoon Hotel

Staining the shag rug, gumbo
trickles from a toppled-over Styrofoam plate;
a fuming mango
incense, bitter as wine on a bride’s breath, pollinates
the balcony air; goldfish float like embryos
 
in the sheer-plastic waterbed, their eyes bulging
as if reeling from Mommy and Daddy's big show;
tremolando,
Sauvignon blubbers from the tipped-over bottle’s O;
Paper-lantern moons festoon the railing--
 
slung on one, a glob of KY Jelly
like ultrasound-gel on a mother’s belly;
immortelles,
their yellow petals pursed like a bride’s lips,
confetti the desk like cleaning-lady's tips.
 



Jackson Sabbagh is an MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Florida. They won the Academy of American Poets College Prize at Sarah Lawrence College. Their poems have appeared in journals such as Assaracus, Word Riot, and RUST + MOTH, the last of which nominated them for a Pushcart Prize.