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The Instant of My Death

hands that they have to kill it!
SUMMARY The speaker’s mood abruptly changes when a boy appears by
The speaker is sitting on a busy bus. The heavy man in the next the side of the road and pretends to shoot them. This
seat presses up against them, uncomfortably close, making surprising, unsettling image punctures the speaker’s illusion
them feel as if a wet cat were rubbing against them. The that the ride will go on forever—and reminds the speaker that
speaker's traveling companion is reading a book of Buddhist life doesn’t go on forever, either. The boy with the toy gun is
literature near the back of the bus. dressed in "red flannel," has a gap-tooth, and looks as small as a
"black-eyed bean." In other words, he seems pretty cute and
The bus chugs along, the wheels and hours rolling forward
innocent. But he also startles the speaker when he fires at them
slowly. The speaker looks out at the surrounding Himalayan
with a "toy gun." This is the moment that gives the poem its
mountains, which appear to hold the sky open.
title: "the instant of my death." The speaker feels that a “piece of
They trace the landscape on the window with their finger, me stopped then”: experiencing this mock-death made a part of
counting cows and monasteries, feeling pretty bored. them feel as if they’ve really died. The boy’s innocent
At last, they reach a town called Gramphoo. Just there, at the appearance is a reminder that death can arrive suddenly and
spot where the road forks, the speaker spots a skinny boy without warning.
dressed in red cloth, crouching between two roadside Of course, this isn't a literal death: the speaker lives, the bus
restaurants. rolls on, and the speaker’s seatmate starts chomping on an
He looks like a tiny bean, framed between rugged rocks, and apple. The boy's actions, though, have viscerally reminded the
the speaker almost misses him completely. He turns around, speaker that, no matter how it feels, their life won't go on
showing his gap teeth, and pretends to shoot the speaker with a forever. This death in miniature form, though playful and
toy gun. harmless, intrudes on the speaker’s sense of having plenty of
A part of the speaker freezes forever and is left behind as the time, reminding them that death is certain. In other words, life
bus pulls away; the man next to the speaker splits an apple with can never be endless even when it seems like it will go on
his thumb. forever. In fact, life is a one-way journey towards a meeting
with one's own mortality.

THEMES Where this theme appears in the poem:

• Lines 1-12
TIME AND MORTALITY
“The Instant of My Death” is a mysterious poem that
TRAVEL, ATTENTION, AND AWARENESS
examines how the thought of death changes the way
we experience life. The speaker, a tourist in the Himalayas, rides In “The Instant of my Death,” a surprise on a long
a bus with a companion through a mountainous landscape, on a journey becomes the speaker’s wake-up call, a
journey that seems like it will go on forever. A startling reminder to stay alert and awake to the world. This, the poem
encounter on the way, however, reminds the speaker that the hints, can be a surprisingly difficult task.
journey will indeed end—and so will life itself, one day. The At the beginning of the poem, the speaker (a tourist in the
poem suggests that certain startling moments shatter the Himalayas) seems jaded. On a bus journey through one of the
illusion that life is an endless flow of time, reminding those who most breathtaking landscapes in the world, all they notice is
experience them that death is inevitable. how uncomfortable they are: the bus is too crowded, the
The speaker’s long, arduous bus trip through the Himalayan journey is too long, and they’ve stopped seeing the beauty of
landscape at first feels as if it would never end. In a “crammed,” the Himalayas, instead just “count[ing] cows” in an effort to
oppressive bus, the speaker senses the "wheels and hours make the time pass faster. Their “eyes glaz[e] over” with
grinding" endlessly on. Bored, the speaker and their companion boredom. Even traveling through a dramatic foreign landscape,
try to pass the time. The friend reads The Jataka Tales (a key then, isn’t enough to make this speaker pay attention.
Buddhist text that discusses time, death, and reincarnation), Technically awake, they’re nonetheless in some sense
while the speaker counts cows and gompas (roadside unconscious, unable to really take in what’s around them.
restaurants) and traces the outlines of the mountains against All this changes when, at a fork in the road, a little boy pops up
the window. They feel as if they have so much time on their and “shoots” the speaker with a toy gun. This unexpected

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surprise makes the speaker feel as if “a piece of [them] stopped together—just another moment of discomfort on this
then.” At the shock of being “shot,” they awake to their uncomfortable day.
surroundings again and leave behind the “piece” of them that The speaker captures the feel of the trip through zeugma in line
can’t see what’s around them. The little boy himself is striking: a 3, describing "wheels and hours grinding." The wheels keep
“black-eyed bean” dressed in vivid “red flannel,” his bright eating up the road, but it never seems to end; similarly, hours
liveliness breaks right through the dozy speaker’s boredom. His pass, but the bus doesn't reach its destination. This lulls the
imaginary gunshot symbolically kills the version of the speaker speaker into a state of total boredom. The way the zeugma
that’s shut off from their environment. As the bus takes a new mixes a concrete noun with an abstract one—wheels and
fork in the road, the speaker does, too—no longer just dully hours—disorients the reader, heightening the poem's strange
“count[ing] cows and gompas” (Buddhist schools), but alert and atmosphere.
aware, paying attention even to the sharp, fresh “crack[]” of the
apple their seatmate is splitting in half (rather than just whining Enjambment between lines 3 and 4 evokes the way the bus
that his leg is sweatily crowding them “like a damp cat”). bounces up and down on the road:

By telling this story from the perspective of a traveler in a and we all stumbled on; wheels and hours grinding,
foreign country, the poem hints that it’s all too easy to fall into a tripping
complacent, unresponsive way of looking at the world. Seen as Spiti rose up around us, sky propped open by its
with jaded eyes, even spectacular mountains might just look peaks.
like so many rocks; seen with alert attention, even familiar
things might look as bright and strange as an unknown The line break is rough and choppy, just like the road itself.
landscape.
The speaker has little to do other than look out of the window.
They notice the impressive "Spiti" valley rising up around them,
Where this theme appears in the poem:
and how the sky seems to be "propped open" by the high
• Lines 1-12 mountains. There is a sense of awe in this description, but it
doesn't negate the feeling that the speaker wants this journey
to end. The speaker might be in one of the most spectacular
LINE-BY
LINE-BY-LINE
-LINE ANAL
ANALYSIS
YSIS places in the world, but they're still somehow turned off to it,
not really taking in the splendor; they're much more alert to the
LINES 1-4 clammy leg of their seatmate than the sublime "peaks" outside
the window.
The bus was ...
... by its peaks. This free vverse
erse poem (written without a rh
rhyme
yme scheme or
regular meter) uses unrhymed couplets
couplets—two-line
As the poem opens, the speaker recalls traveling through the
stanzas—throughout. Alongside the poem's long lines, this
Himalayan mountains on a bus. They use evocative imagery to
creates an impression of a monotonous onward momentum,
set the scene in line 1:
capturing the speaker's mood on their journey.
The bus was crammed and the fat man rubbed LINES 5-8
against m
myy leg lik
likee a damp cat I traced the ...
... between two dhabas;
The reader immediately gets an impression of the bus's
crowded, uncomfortable conditions. Through vivid details like In the third stanza, the speaker sketches further details of the
this, the poem draws the reader into the speaker's mood. The journey. Readers might begin to feel as if they're either sitting
simile "like a damp cat" is intentionally icky, capturing the at the speaker's side or reading an entry in their diary.
unpleasantness and overfamiliarity of being squashed against a Terribly bored and uncomfortable, the speaker traces "the
sweaty neighbor. rockline on the window with my finger" to pass the time. They
Line 2 reveals that the speaker has a traveling companion who start counting "cows and gompas" (Buddhist monastic schools),
is sitting "three rows from the back." This person, likely a friend struggling to find a way to keep themselves entertained. All this
or a partner, is reading The Jataka Tales, a collection of ancient description makes the journey seem endless. The speaker feels
stories that describe the Buddha's past lives. It seems possible, like they have all the time in the world to fill.
then, that the speaker and their companion are foreigners: the When counting animals and landmarks proves insufficient, the
book signals an attempt to learn about the culture of the area. speaker grows increasingly bored. They feel their "eyes glaze
The companion presumably sits "three rows from the back" over"; they've stopped really seeing the world. Suddenly,
because the bus was too crowded for the two to sit though, they reach Gramphoo, a place known for its impressive

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fork in the road. The full-stop caesur
caesuraa after "Gramphoo" signals This moment also simply wakes the speaker up! The piece of
that the poem has reached a turning point—literally and the speaker that dies here is also the piece of them that was
figur
figurativ
atively
ely. An important moment in the speaker's life is about dully "count[ing] cows" along the road, not truly noticing where
to arrive. they were. The boy's sudden bright appearance ends their
As the road divides, "a thin boy in red flannel" appears complacent boredom, and the "piece" of them that stops here
"between two dhabas" (roadside restaurants). His brightly might also be the piece of them that doesn't see what's really
colored clothes impose themselves on the speaker's memory, there. Readers here might think back to the speaker's friend
contrasting with the relative plainness of mountains, reading The Jataka Tales in the back of the bus—stories that
monasteries, and cows. The boy's appearance feels sudden and recount the life of the Buddha. Like the Buddha, the speaker
vivid, breaking the spell of the speaker's boredom and seems to have experienced an awakening.
wrenching them back into the present moment. The bus moves on, and the speaker's journey continues. The
man sitting next to them "crack[s] open an apple with his
LINES 9-12 thumb" in another memorable, visceral image, creating a
a black-eyed bean, ... contrast between the internal, introspective impact of the
... with his thumb. speaker's encounter with the boy and external, ongoing
The speaker describes the boy through metaphorical imagery
imagery, reality—and suggesting that the speaker is noticing things again.
calling him "a black-eyed bean." The image emphasizes his The "crack[]" of the apple might make the nonexistent sound of
smallness from the speaker's bus-bound vantage point, and the toy gun firing into something tangible; this is another
almost sounds like a term of endearment. The speaker even reminder that the bored, unresponsive version of the speaker
notices the boy has gaps in his teeth, a detail which further has been left behind. They're here now, paying attention. As the
suggests both his apparent innocent cuteness and the poem testifies, this experience has stayed with them ever since.
speaker's lingering impression of this encounter. This kid looks
like a sweet little guy.
Here, something new and surprising happens. Almost as if he
SYMBOLS
had been waiting for the speaker to come, the boy "shoots"
them with a toy gun. Here, a dramatic enjambment creates a THE BOY WITH THE GUN
comic moment, making it clear that this wasn't a real The little boy who pops up and "shoots" the speaker
assassination: with a toy gun becomes a symbol of a life-altering
moment—perhaps death itself, perhaps the arrival of a new
that I almost missed him, until he turned, gap- understanding.
toothed, and shot me
Looking only about the size of a "bean" in the rocky Himalayan
with a toy gun. landscape, "gap-toothed," dressed in cheery bright "red flannel,"
this little kid doesn't seem like a terribly menacing presence.
To the boy, this is just a bit of fun. To the speaker, though, this is But when he pretend-shoots the speaker, he becomes an apt
a profound event. For just a split second, as the enjambment reminder that death might arrive just when and where you
reflects, the speaker truly feels that this is the "instant of my least expect it. The boy's innocent appearance makes him into a
death" referred to in the title. Perhaps the reader does, too, cheeky sort of Grim Reaper, all the eerier because he seems so
before the sentence resolves and the reader, alongside the harmless.
speaker, realizes the gun isn't real.
But he might also suggest a sudden realization, a new
Of course, the speaker doesn't die—but the shock of this understanding that sets someone off on a new way of life. His
moment startles them out of their complacent boredom, bright appearance jolts the speaker awake, and his pretend
reminding them that, while they didn't die just then, they gunshot marks the end of the bored, complacent trance they've
eventually will. Time, which felt so endless on the bus, suddenly fallen into.
seems short and limited. This fake, playful execution is a
Readers might note, too, that this boy stands "where the road
reminder of the speaker's mortality, pre-empting the real
divided," symbolically guarding a choice between two paths.
instant of their death. And the unexpected source of this mock
While the speaker goes on along their way, they might feel that
death—a cute little boy—is a reminder that death might arrive
the "piece of [them that] stopped" when the boy pretended to
from anywhere, at any moment, without warning.
shoot them diverges from them here, taking another road.
The speaker describes this realization as a "piece" of them Rather than trundling along as they were, the speaker
"stopp[ing]." It's like the toy gun freezes a moment in time, and, symbolically takes a new path here, waking up—whether to
in doing so, shows the reader that life won't last forever. their mortality or just to the world around them!

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Where this symbol appears in the poem: • Lines 2-3: “back / and”
• Lines 7-11: “There, where the road divided, / I saw a thin • Lines 3-4: “tripping / as”
boy in red flannel squat between two dhabas; / a black- • Lines 6-7: “over / until”
eyed bean, slipped in between two crags, he was so small • Lines 9-10: “small / that”
/ that I almost missed him, until he turned, gap-toothed, • Lines 10-11: “me / with”
and shot me / with a toy gun.”
IMAGERY
"The Instant of My Death" is packed with visual and tactile
POETIC DEVICES imagery that conjures the speaker's memorable day on the bus.
The poem reads almost like a journal entry, recording the
ENJAMBMENT sights, sounds, and feelings of the speaker's travels. For
Enjambments help to capture the atmosphere and the example, the speaker notes that the bus is "crammed" and that
surprises of the speaker's bus journey. The break between lines a "fat man" presses against the speaker's leg "like a damp cat."
3 and 4, for instance, simulates the jerkiness of the ride: This image captures the speaker's claustrophobic discomfort;
their fellow passenger's leg, invading their space, feels
and we all stumbled on; wheels and hours grinding, overfamiliar and a little clammy.
tripping In the second stanza, the journey feels endless: "we all
as Spiti rose up around us, sky propped open by its stumbled on; wheels and hours grinding, tripping." This imagery
peaks. evokes the jerky rhythms and harsh sounds of the bus as it
rides the rough mountain roads. There's great beauty here too,
Here, the line itself "trip[s]" at just the same moment as the bus though. The speaker's image of the "sky propped open" by the
does, creating an abrupt, jolting rhythm. "peaks" of the Himalayas gets at just how dramatic and soaring
Later on, enjambments help to mark important turning points the mountains look.
in the poem, often by splitting a sentence across a stanza, not Against this backdrop, the little boy who pretends to shoot the
just a line. Take a look at the moment when the speaker's speaker pops out vividly. He looks like a "black-eyed bean," he's
monotonous bus journey finally changes: cutely "gap-toothed," and he's dressed in bright, memorable
"red flannel." He's a shock of color against the uniformity of the
counted cows and gompas, felt my eyes glaze over landscape, making the pretend shooting feel all the more vivid,
until we reached Gramphoo. [...] unsettling, and strange.

By splitting the sentence here, the speaker places special Where Imagery appears in the poem:
emphasis on the word "until," making it clear that an important
• Line 1: “The bus was crammed and the fat man rubbed
change is coming. The firm, full-stop caesur
caesuraa after "Gramphoo"
against my leg like a damp cat”
adds to the gravity of the moment as well.
• Line 3: “we all stumbled on; wheels and hours grinding,
Perhaps the poem's most telling and meaningful enjambment tripping”
comes in lines 10-11 (leaping another stanza break): • Line 4: “Spiti rose up around us, sky propped open by its
peaks”
[...] I almost missed him, until he turned, gap-toothed, • Lines 8-11: “I saw a thin boy in red flannel squat
and shot me between two dhabas; / a black-eyed bean, slipped in
with a toy gun. [...] between two crags, he was so small / that I almost
missed him, until he turned, gap-toothed, and shot me /
For just a fraction of a second, the words "shot me" hang in the with a toy gun”
air, giving the reader a moment to believe that the speaker
really did die. The title of the poem, after all, leaves that METAPHOR
possibility open. The enjambment thus helps the reader to Metaphors help to capture the speaker's thoughtful vision of
share the speaker's moment of shock. the world around them, in all its unfamiliarity.
As the bus makes its long, weary way across the Himalayas, the
Where Enjambment appears in the poem: speaker looks out the window to see the "sky propped open" by
• Lines 1-2: “cat / while” the "peaks" of the mountains. This metaphor suggests that the
mountains look almost supernaturally tall, and it also captures a

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sense of daunting wide-openness in the sky above.
Where Z
Zeugma
eugma appears in the poem:
The little kid who pops up in the middle of this forbidding
landscape at first seems comically out of place. Dressed in • Line 3: “wheels and hours grinding, tripping”
cheery "red flannel," he makes the speaker think of a "black-
eyed bean." That cute metaphor—which, in capturing the boy's
teeny-tininess, almost sounds like a term of endearment—sets VOCABULARY
the reader up for a surprise when the boy turns around and
points a not-so-cute toy gun right at the speaker, forcing them Crammed (Line 1) - Full of people.
to confront their own mortality out of the blue. The Jataka Tales (Lines 2-2) - A collection of ancient Buddhist
The poem also uses a single simile right up top in its first line: stories that recount the previous lives (past incarnations) of the
Buddha and illustrate moral lessons.
The bus was crammed and the fat man rubbed Spiti (Line 4) - A high-altitude valley in the Himalayan mountain
against m
myy leg lik
likee a damp cat range. The name means "middle land," referring to the land
between Tibet and India.
This image captures the cramped conditions of the bus. There
Gompas (Lines 5-6) - Buddhist monasteries/temples which
isn't enough room to maintain one's personal space, creating an
often serve as cultural and educational centers.
uncomfortable and clammy intimacy with one's seatmates.
Gramphoo (Line 7) - A place in the Himalayas where the road
Where Metaphor appears in the poem: forks towards the Spiti and Lahaul valleys.
Flannel (Line 8) - A soft woven fabric typically made from wool,
• Line 4: “sky propped open by its peaks”
cotton, or both.
• Line 9: “a black-eyed bean”
• Line 11: “a piece of me stopped then” Dhabas (Line 8) - A type of roadside restaurant found in the
Indian subcontinent.
ZEUGMA Crags (Lines 8-9) - Steep and jagged rock formations.
The poem uses zeugma in line 3, when speaker describes what
it was like to be on that long, dull bus journey:
FORM, METER, & RHYME
and we all stumbled on; wheels and hours grinding,
FORM
tripping
as Spiti rose up around us, sky propped open by its "The Instant of My Death" is written in free vverse
erse, so it doesn't
peaks. use a regular rh
rhyme
yme scheme or meter
meter. It does, however, use a
pretty uniform shape: the poem's 12 lines are divided into six
Here, the speaker links the concrete noun "wheels" with the two-line stanzas. This regularity, combined with the poem's
abstract "hours" using the verbs "grinding" and "tripping." This long lines, subtly suggests the arduous and seemingly endless
moment captures both the physical sensation of being on the nature of the speaker's bus journey.
bus—the wheels "grinding" and "tripping," struggling against The poem launches right into details without much explanation,
the rough mountain roads—and the experience of time almost as if it were the speaker's journal entry. This choice lulls
"grinding" and "tripping" past agonizingly slowly, as if the the reader, recreating the atmosphere on the bus—and makes
journey is never going to end. the little boy's make-believe gunshot feel as startling and
The zeugma captures the arduous discomfort of both the memorable to the reader as it is to the speaker.
speaker's literal journey and the metaphorical journey of life. METER
This dual use of the verbs intensifies the sense of boredom that
can overtake people in times of monotony or complacency. "The Instant of My Death" is written in free vverse
erse—that is, it
doesn't use a regular meter
meter. But it still uses rhythm to create its
That effect helps to build up to the speaker's surprise effects. Its long, choppy, drawn-out lines mirror the bumpiness
encounter with the "instant" of their own "death" in the form of and boredom of the speaker's bus ride on the Himalayan
a little boy with a toy gun. By laying a dull backdrop against mountain roads, while a sudden surprising enjambment
which this surprise pops out, the zeugma here prepares the between lines 10 and 11 captures the speaker's shock when
ground for the speaker's discovery that life isn't infinite, even if (for a split second) they think they've been shot.
it seems like it could just as well "grind[]" on forever.

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RHYME SCHEME
CONTEXT
"The Instant of My Death" doesn't have a rh rhyme
yme scheme
scheme,
though it does use an occasional subtle slant rh
rhyme
yme, like cat and LITERARY CONTEXT
back in lines 1-2 or on and thumb in lines 11-12. The lack of
Sarah Jackson is a British poet and academic who was born in
rhyme gives the poem a free-form, journal-like tone that pulls
1977. She has won numerous awards and is currently
the reader into the speaker's world.
Associate Professor in Modern and Contemporary Writing at
Nottingham Trent University.
SPEAKER "The Instant of My Death" was published in Jackson's debut
collection, Pelt (2012), by Bloodaxe Books. Like "The Instant of
"The Instant of My Death" features a first-person speaker who My Death," many poems in the book create an uncanny
recollects a bus journey through the Himalayan mountains. The atmosphere, deliberately unsettling the reader. In an interview
speaker travels with a companion; both are most likely foreign with Magma magazine
magazine, Jackson says, of her creative process:
tourists. "I’ve been exploring the idea of affective disorientation—what
The speaker spends most of the poem describing the Sianne Ngai calls the feeling 'in which one feels confused about
experience of the bus ride, immersing the reader in their what one is feeling'—and how poetry can often create this
experience through detailed imagery
imagery. The speaker is bored and unsettling ambiguity." Jackson often writes early in the
frustrated by the length of the journey and the cramped morning, using her dream-state to uncover "darker, hidden
conditions on the bus, and they feel their "eyes glaze over." In sides of experience."
short, they feel like they have more time on their hands than Jackson cites Emily Dickinson and Wallace Ste
Stevvens among her
they know what to do with. formative influences and is a contemporary of poets like
They remember this monotonous journey because of what Matthew Sweeney, Mark Ford, and Selima Hill (whom Jackson
changed it: the appearance of a little boy with a toy gun who also cites as an influence).
pretends to shoot them. This playful but unsettling encounter
wrenches the speaker back into themselves, leaving them HISTORICAL CONTEXT
feeling that in some way they just experienced the moment of "The Instant of My Death" suggests—though it doesn't
their own death. Interpreted another way, the moment is one in explicitly confirm—that the speaker and their companion are
which the bored speaker is suddenly acutely aware of their both tourists. Note, for example, that the companion is reading
surroundings and reminded that moments of surprise (and, a book of Buddhist literature, The Jataka Tales, perhaps to
even, connection) can happen unexpectedly. immerse themselves in the culture and history of the
The speaker's tale of their experiences suggests that they're a Himalayas.
thoughtful, introspective person; the poem might make readers The Himalayas are a vast range of mountains crossing a vast
feel as if they're reading an entry in the speaker's diary. swath of Asia. Their most famous peak is Mount Everest, the
tallest mountain in the world. The speaker's mention of
"Gramphoo" and "Spiti" suggests that they're traveling along a
SETTING famous Himalayan road in India, beloved by British tourists.

"The Instant of My Death" recounts a bus journey through the This particular stretch of the speaker's journey is home to a
Himalayan mountains. The speaker takes in the grandeur of the substantial Buddhist population. As the speaker observes,
Spiti valley, whose peaks seem to "prop[] open" the sky. there are many Buddhist gompas (religious institutions of
learning, rather like a cross between a temple and a university)
The speaker can't really enjoy their surroundings, though, in the region, marks of a historical Tibetan Buddhist influence.
because the bus is so cramped (note the "fat man" rubbing up Alongside the image of the little boy with the toy gun, these
against the speaker's leg). The journey feels like it's going to discreet allusions remind readers that some of the lands the
drag on forever. The speaker passes the time by counting—or speaker might travel through on a journey across the
tracing—features in the landscape as it rolls by. Himalayas have fraught histories of violence and invasion.
The monotonous, uncomfortable journey lulls the speaker into During the 20th century alone, for instance, Tibet was invaded
a kind of stupor, which makes it doubly surprising and by Britain, then annexed by China, with much bloodshed and
memorable when a little boy pops up out of the landscape and destruction.
pretends to shoot her. Indeed, the atmosphere of boredom and
the sense that the journey will go on forever are what make this
playful reminder of mortality all the more shocking.

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MORE RESOUR
RESOURCES
CES HOW T
TO
O CITE
EXTERNAL RESOURCES MLA
• An Interview with the P
Poet
oet — Read an interview in Magma
Howard, James. "The Instant of My Death." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC,
magazine in which Sarah Jackson discusses her work.
21 Nov 2023. Web. 5 Dec 2023.
(https:/
(https:///magmapoetry
magmapoetry.com/interview-with-sar
.com/interview-with-sarah-jackson/)
ah-jackson/)
• More Jackson P Poems
oems — Read more poems from the book CHICAGO MANUAL
in which "The Instant of My Death" appeared. Howard, James. "The Instant of My Death." LitCharts LLC,
(http:/
(http://bloodax
/bloodaxeblogs.blogspot.com/2012/08/three-
eblogs.blogspot.com/2012/08/three- November 21, 2023. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
poems-from-sar
poems-from-sarah-jacksons-pelt.html)
ah-jacksons-pelt.html) https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/sarah-jackson/the-instant-of-
my-death.
• Jackson
Jackson's
's W
Website
ebsite — Check out the poet's website to learn
more about her work. (https:/
(https:///sar
sarahjacksonbluebo
ahjacksonbluebox.com/
x.com/
poetry
poetry/)
/)

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