"Stay sweet!" the yearbook signers said,
Over and over again.
"Stay sweet!"
As if they knew by some prophetic utterance
That the coming world would harden
Us into the critics, teachers, naysayers,
That we knew as "adults."

Stay sweet, my love, stay sweet,
For I have been deficient many years,
Behind the eight ball and the recommended daily allowance
Of sugar,
And I need you
To stay sweet.

-jenn

So they live it up in their material world,
Ensconced in fantasy,
Where he is the king,
And she, his sugarbaby.
And all is well and right with the world

Until they have to go to Walmart.

And there the world sees their consumer patterns
Arrive piecemeal, conveyer belt style:
Shurefine Kreme Soda
And Wiggly Puffs,
All in excess,
Even the toilet paper,
A 54 pack
To wash all of it down.

The woman's eyes gleam
Like the blades of a brand new
Craftsman garbage disposal,
Her big ass defying the seams
Of her Egyptian cottons,
While the man stands clipped,
Eyes cast down
In the harsh fluorescent light
Of bargain store reality,

Wondering how he'll hack it all again
Come Monday morning.

-jenn

Come 'ere
Sweet Potata
Let me butter you up
You don't need any cinnamon
Or any nutmeg
And you sho don't need any honey
Cause yore sweet enough

Come ta think of it
I'm not sure if you need any butter
But I just happen ta have some
Extra

-jenn

Was I supposed to slow down?
He was all elbows and assholes
Running across 10th St,
With the look in his eye
Like a wave on a slop bucket,
And I was alone with Kenny Rogers
In my butter car.
And he never slowed,
And neither did I, honey!
Both trying to beat the odds
And beat time,
And this time both of us made it.

-jenn

What kind of world have I wiggled into
Where sperm meets egg
In cosmic kiss
And French stands for fuck
And we all speak in parables
Parabola
Parabola
We all fall in

-jenn

My own tears
Melted my mountains
Into molehills.
The salty miniature
Ocean bites
Brought my heart
To dunes.
And as it washed
All over me
How wrong I'd been
Forever,
The painted sands
Clanked out
Their wistful tunes.

"Come and see
The sun set
In the desert.
Come watch
The stars fall
Out of the sky,
Like Raggedy Ann
With her arms
All akimbo,
Flinging herself
Off the night stand
Again."

-jenn

There is a part of us that is animal,
And that is the perfect part of us,
The part that seeks it's natural way
To be what it certainly is.
The fat, sleek part of us is natural,
That eats and breeds and yawns,
And stretches out across the plains
Without worry of beyond.

We see the animals, and they are perfect.
Their best is more than good enough.
They rest when they are tired,
And do all things as needed.
Theirs is the better part of valor,
And we would do well to understand
The animal within ourselves,
And some of its demands.

-jenn