You tell me you want to take me for a ride,

But we always wind up at the water treatment plant,

So, no, I don't trust you to

Drive anymore.

I'm tired of going to the sewer.

I'm not getting into the car with you again.

I'm walking up the mountain 

To breathe the fragrant mountain air

And see the sunrise on the junipers.

I'm going to look up for a long time,

And hope that if I do glance downhill,

I won't see the next one to take your journey to the bottoms

Going down the drain.

-jenn

Cats have certain allotments of time

Wherein they're required to purr.

They'd prefer that you pet them then,

But if you don't, they'll purr anyway.

Transactions take time,

And I'm no different, but certain 

Durations are better,

When instance goes instant infinity,

And epochs epic.

And if you don't, I'll purr anyway.

Everything purrs in its own time,

The earth, the sky, the sun,

The great ocean churns and says, 

"Now you can fly with us."

And if we don't, they'll fly anyway.

-jenn

I've got a drop in the bucket for you,

And you've got a drop for me.

We'll put our buckets out in the rain

Tonight, and tomorrow morning,

We'll see if we can tell our drops from the others.

But what shall we do all night

In the rain? Shall we watch it fall?

Or should we drop like the rain

Into one another's buckets

And bathe in the piety of love?

-jenn

I've been needing someone like you,

A muse who can take it like a man,

Someone who can stand to

Be worshipped like a baby,

Even a baby in a manger.

Babies can take being worshipped 

As long as the worshippers keep it down,

And as long as they get their mother's milk

In a timely fashion.

So come and let me pacify you

With the heat of passion.

You can pacify me, too,

Actively or passive.

You already do,

Invading my dreams

Without ever lifting a finger,

Or taking your own

And writing in the sand

About sins or original stones.

-jenn

If I love you as you are all through the night
And into day,
And then I vanish as a star in morning’s light,
Still there, but turned away,
Would you think that I was gone if quietly
I turned again?
Would you think that I was wrong if quietly
I looked at you,
And shined my light on you, too?

-jenn

During this, the longest and most sultry night 

Of the Battle of Reveal,

I want to talk to you,

But I don't have anything to say.

Can I just lay beside you on the battlefield?

You could talk quietly to me til Reveille,

While we pretend to be dead,

Or I could listen to hear you breathe.

I could brush my fingers over you

So lightly you might never know that it was me.

You might forget that I am here, 
And you might forget to wear your livery,

And I could see you as you are.

And then, if I say something accidentally,

I hope you will stay unclad

And not retreat to textiles.

But let me go back to speechlessness,

And let this inner war be won together

By embracing a brave tactile contingency 

On both fronts.

I won't tell you that I love you,

(But I do. You know I do.)

But can I tell you that

My nipples ache in your general direction?

-jenn

You cant think I'd ever be a snake.

You can't believe the places I've been.

But I can tell you how bad it itches

When I need to shed my skin.

You can't imagine I'd find a dark closet

And slither down the arm of a winter coat,

But you don't know how bad it itches,

When the old skin has got to go.

Others can smile and take medication,

Let their skin grow and grow,

Have forty layers of dead skin covering

All that shiny new with the sluffy old.

You can't imagine I'd find a dark closet

And slither down the arm of a winter coat,

But you don't know how bad it itches,

When the old skin has got to go.

-jenn

My horoscope said it was an unlucky day,

And that people would be predisposed to gloom,

And that I should do anything that I wanted,

So I drank monster energy all afternoon,

And checked my phone to see if I had a message there from you.

I should do some housework,

Or clean the yard,

Mow the grass, or play guitar,

But I think I'll lay down,

And wonder where you are,

And what you're doin,

Drink a monster energy,

And see if there's a message from you.

Oh I'm obsessed I hear you say,

And you don't have time to

Come and play,

Cause you've got big important grownup thangs to do.

So I'll drink a monster energy 

And check my phone to see if there's a message from

You.

-jenn

Love is a great power 

If you have nothing to offer,

Because Love is easily taken advantage of.

But if Love is all you've got,

Then nothing else will matter.

I gave a man a smile on the corner.

He smiled back, surprised,

And then he asked if I had change.

I said no, all I have is Love,

So he bid me good-day.

I met a man who had nothing to give but Love,

And I had nothing either.

But he gave me a son

And I gave him another

And the love our children have for us

Is a life giving gift,

And the love we have for them,

Makes our lives worth living.

Love is all we really have.

It's the only happily ever after.

Love is all we really have.

The only thing that matters.

-jenn

"What kind of ship are you running here?"

The admiral demands to know.

I hesitate, then answer honestly,

"Oh. I didn't know I was running a ship.

But now that I know, I've got to say,

I may not be able to do any better."

But maybe it explains why

I've been trying to run it into the ground.

I'm a land lubber, ya know?

-jenn

I shared a house with a woman once

Who complained I didn't leave it tidy.

The bed was a mess, 

The bedspread hanging half off the foot of the bed.

The pillows were piled in the middle,

And a few were in the floor with my clothes.

The phone rang, and I answered it once,

Though I knew I wasn't supposed to.

I heard a strange man talking to her

On an extension, but I didn't listen.

I hung up because I didn't care.

But I was the one who loved the house.

I let it have sex with me.

We made love on numerous occasions,

But she had all its kids.

She wouldn't do anything with the house,

Or let it do much either.

She kept it tied up in escrow,

But the house just wanted to be loved,

And really have that lived in look.

-jenn

He comes to sit by me in the auditorium.

My hand looks pale on the leg of his ink black pants.

Feeling his taut muscles makes my heart beat quick,

And he smells so good, I think I might be sick with love.

He's telling me he finally found the place where he heard the dissertation,

The one he'd been wanting to hear.

And now he's found me and wants to read me,

And I can't bring myself to look at his face

For fear he won't be who I think he is.

-jenn

I comb the beach at dawn and search the sand

For some treasure the sea might offer me,

But all I find is a clump of yarn

Tangled up with trash and seaweed.

For years I searched, longed for something rare,

A starfish or a special kind of shell.

I'd settle for a clam or oyster.

Some of them are beautiful,

Or even the legendary one set of footprints

That would prove to me

That Jesus had in fact carried me

Through my toughest times.

But what I really dreamed of finding,

The thing that I wished for 

And wanted more than anything else,

Was a sand dollar.

Today I found five of them,

Tucked away in a box in the top of a closet.

I bought the whole shebang for two dollars and fifty cents with my own money 

At an estate sale I'd wandered into.

No, I didn't find them on the beach,

But, no less, I found them.

And maybe they are more precious

To me, ever more the wanted,

Because I understand now how cherished I have been.

I have been wanted so perfectly

That it has set me free 

From any situations where I'm not wanted thoroughly.

And I will keep my sand dollars out

And touch them everyday,

And think of the one-sided beach

And it's unyielding, stingy nature,

And remember to keep combing 

The fertile and copious abundance

Of the laissez-faire estate sales.

-jenn

The skies are gray.

The clouds all hiss and spit 

A cold fine mist 

At everyone and everything.

I am chilled to the very bone

The very core of my being

And pout because I don't want to go out

And do anything.

But as I'm thinking about this and that,

You come calling in my mind,

Peeking in my window,

Smiling,

Coaxing me out of my shell

And into an apple pie reverie.

I climb out the window and go with you

Down a sunny path

On a forest hike.

You're the only Winter I like.

-jenn

A routine traffic stop turns into a chase.

An old blue Buick---

It takes the time to stop at a stop sign,

And one passenger, young white male, skinny,

Wearing a St. Louis ball cap sideways,

Hops out fast with his hands up high.

The car proceeds at a high rate of speed 

Down maple avenue, but loses control

And skids to a stop, high-centering the median.

Two men jump and run for the trees,

The police on their tail with a dog.

One young woman gets out of the car

And gets on the ground face down,

Yelling, "Bleeeeep you! Bleeeep youuuuu!"

While they cuff her.

The police have the first young man in custody,

The Cardinals fan from back at the stop sign.

They ask him to give up the names.

He says he just met them today,

And doesn't know they're real names,

But maybe one is named Brent?

The cop wants to question the girl

And asks her the same.

He tells her it is her only chance to come clean,

And that when they catch the other two,

And they admit to knowing her

That'll be it.

She'll be charged with felony obstruction.

"What's the driver's name?"

They ask her. 

"That's Brent," she says and rolls her eyes.

But the smile the girl smiles

When she thinks of the other one,

That man-child on the run from the law,

Tells me she is in love.

And when they ask,

She flatly states,

"I'm not telling you his name."

It's a telling smile,

A telling eye,

A telling know,

His name is tattooed on her heart.

And if the cops really want to know,

They should check the tattoos 

On the rest of her body,

Because I would bet good money,

His name is tattooed somewhere there too.

-jenn

I'm clumsy here on earth

And not winning any pageants,

But by the time I get to your planet,

Weightlessness has done its perfect work on me.

I'm blithe, carefree, strong and sure

As a ballerina.

I move with grace and beauty 

Here, without gravity to bother me.

And the sweet effect your smile has on my heart,

My spirit bounds and leaps just like a hind.

I'm high on a mountain,

And my mountain goat feet are perfect here,

Where Love makes me beautiful.

And even when I return to earth,

The world will see the new and better me,

And finally I will know myself

Even as I am known,

As a graceful, gracious, cosmic astronaut.

-jenn

I dance with you at night.

I peek in a window

And see myself and you.

Then I sneak into myself

And peek again at you up close

While we are dancing.

Your hands palm to palm with mine,

Then your fingers in between,

Then you pull me very close

And kiss me.

Sometimes then I find that I
Must slip back outside,

But I can't look now.
I hide my eyes

Because I'm terrified and sweating.

I have chills, but I'm on fire

With desire,

And I don't even know

If you'd like to dance

That way

With me.

-jenn

The natural world displays intelligent creation.

The acorn shaped perfectly

To fall from the oak

And roll in spiraled strangeness,

Yet their strange paths can be algebraically defined

And thus it can be predicted where the next great trees will grow.

Meanwhile in the culture we've created,

Idle words fall everywhere,

More precisely related by the same mathematical equations

That delineate where and how often cows poop,

And who will come along to step in them.

But acorns, unlike idle words,

Are beautiful, 

And if they don't grow into big trees,

We can see that they are ever useful,

As the squirrels busily gather them

To feed on all thru the long cold barren season.

While idle words display unintelligent design, 

They are prolific, to say the least,

And if only their speakers would see clear to eat them,

Then all of us could dare to have a feast.

-jenn

The jury over in the next courtroom 

Arrived at a verdict as soon as they got seated,

And voted to string the guy up,

But my jury's still out.

We had to have some testimony re-read,

And had to discuss what the first witness said for two hours.

Meanwhile Jury One is gone

But Jury Two will be sequestered.

But what I think I'll learn from this

Is how much better it is

To reserve judgment,

To try to see with an open mind

What all the sides are all about.

It can be a lot of FUN to THINK

When one is not so bound up by strong opinion,

Strong faith, or doubt.

So when it comes to me and what I think,

Let's just say my jury is still out.

-jenn

My shirt smelled,

And so I burned it in a fire,

And now what's left of it smells fine.

So I'll wash it,

And hang it on the line.

It will take a lot of clothespins

To keep those ashes

From blowing off in the wind.

You may think how silly it is of me

To do my laundry in such a foolish way,

But I learned all this from someone

Who burned up love, one thoughtless, careless day.

-jenn

You are the fresh breeze

That brushes my hair back

From my face and 

Back away from my eyes.

You are the sun that shines

Directly, deep into my gaze.

You are the touch of warmth upon my hand,

The spirit behind me raising that one brow,

The smile I wear right now, is you.

Great men have said that love doth never die,

And you, the greatest one of all to me,

Have spoken directly into my heart,

"There truly is no start, no end

To love."

-jenn

She saw some distant neighbors standing outside,

And as she was walking by,

She felt the need to impress them with a rather wry observation.

"Well where is the baby that used to live here?"

She asked the little girl who she assumed to be the one

The baby had grown into.

The little girl's eyes grew wide,

"She died!" She blurted out horrified,

And went running back into the house screaming,

With her mother behind her, also in tears.

Maybe we should save our brilliance

To shine on folks some other time,

And keep our stunning comments to ourselves.

And unless we have a key to someone's window,

And can peek in all the time and know

Just what they're really dealing with,
We could reserve our wry observations 

For those we've thoroughly observed,

And save our smart remarks for other situations

Where the conversation might truly need to be ruined.

-jenn