Giorno Giovanna’s Jacket
After Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind
The thing about gangsters is
they prefer to remain inconspicuous, thus
they wear Gucci. There’s a negative
space that forms the heart
on Giorno’s breast to make the metaphor clear
for any made man. Two blue
ladybirds on the nipples, glam, serving
as spare limbs//organs in a crisis
very Christ multiplying fish— picture
the scales splitting down the middle in
a meaty tear, invisible to civvies
almost joyful, mitosis the pure garment
of nostalgia. In 2001, it’s torn in a plane
crash over water; hovering in the air like Michelangelo
//the corpses he dissected, learning to paint brains
and musculature
for God’s sake. The collar a defence
against vampires. He can let
his hair down whenever he wants, but
doesn’t. You know him by his pink//blue
before anything else. He has
a dream he doesn’t elaborate, like God and
—like God— disappears into himself//jacket in order
to connive. We can only imagine
his intentions good, passing over in silence,
Venetian light glinting on his gold buttons.
they prefer to remain inconspicuous, thus
they wear Gucci. There’s a negative
space that forms the heart
on Giorno’s breast to make the metaphor clear
for any made man. Two blue
ladybirds on the nipples, glam, serving
as spare limbs//organs in a crisis
very Christ multiplying fish— picture
the scales splitting down the middle in
a meaty tear, invisible to civvies
almost joyful, mitosis the pure garment
of nostalgia. In 2001, it’s torn in a plane
crash over water; hovering in the air like Michelangelo
//the corpses he dissected, learning to paint brains
and musculature
for God’s sake. The collar a defence
against vampires. He can let
his hair down whenever he wants, but
doesn’t. You know him by his pink//blue
before anything else. He has
a dream he doesn’t elaborate, like God and
—like God— disappears into himself//jacket in order
to connive. We can only imagine
his intentions good, passing over in silence,
Venetian light glinting on his gold buttons.
Jocasta Suzanne is a writer/editor living on unceded Wurundjeri land in Naarm. She has been published in Overland, Meanjin and Rabbit Journal among others. In 2023 she was shortlisted for the Kat Muscat fellowship, and the Val Valis award in 2022. She was the winner of the 2021 Harri Jones award, and was one of the recipients of the Next Chapter fellowship. She is a transsexual woman.