Eyes Bottle Dark with
a Mouthful of Flowers: Poems
by Jake Skeets
Review by Nicholas Alexander Hayes
I first read Jake Skeet’s poetry on Twitter. Someone had taken a picture of a page from his collection Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers: Poems. The snippet of verse was so queer, lusty, and dark that I quickly had the collection in my Amazon cart. Once I had the book in hand, it became clear that these elements were strata in rich formations of image and social commentary.
He depicts tenderness amidst violence in masculine relations. The contact between men can be illicit or brutal, but Skeets turns the force of these blows (and blow jobs) against themselves – aggression transmutes to gentleness, loneliness to connection. Beyond everything, compassion and empathy knit this world together.
Recently, another person posted a picture of a page form Skeets’ poem “Truck Effigy.” The askew lines read, “He says swallow but do not,/ hold it as a secret/ and kiss him/ so he can know him/ the way he can know him, a dark/ moon rising from the pool water. The lights ribboned on his cheek/as he comes up for air.” Skeets responded to the post by saying, “This poem is about giving head in a swimming pool with a guy on the DL. I still have early drafts of this poem that were more explicit and some less explicit.” The poet’s judicious eye and keen editorial sensibilities reveal an understanding of how to calculate emotional gravity – keeping us in orbit while reminding us that to be in orbit is to be perpetually falling.
Another of Skeet’s talents is his ability to maintain this kindness in a colonized landscape tainted violated by industrial exploitation. He recognizes that such environments impact metaphysical composition but such adaptation does not deprive, does not choke the full potential of anyone’s humanity.
A blur of homosocial, homosexual, avuncular, paternal, filial masculinities skirt across the field of these poems. The toxicity and its impact are noted including the sometimes homicidal, sometimes suicidal consequences. An imagist bent to many of the poems allows Skeets to exploit the ambiguity and mutability of these masculinities and the landscapes they inhabit.
Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers: Poems
Jake Skeets
Milkweed Editions
ISBN: 978-1571315205
About the Author
Nicholas Alexander Hayes (Review Editor) lives in Chicago, IL. He is the author of NIV: 39 & 27 and Between. He has an MFA in creative writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and he is currently completing an MA in Sociology at DePaul University. He writes about a wide range of topics including ’60s gay pulp fiction, the Miss Rheingold beauty competition, depictions of masculinity on Tumblr, and whatever piece of pop cultural detritus catches his eye at the moment.