When I get to that place
Where my world falls apart
Every night at 330 am,
It's your face that I so plainly see.
While the tiles all fall around me
And the whole facade
Collapses just out of my reach,
I realize that it's here I have to be,
Because this is where it all went horribly wrong,
And this is where I must return
To start my journey right again,
To reach the beginning
And make a new song out of my life.

Here, where the moon
And its reflection meet the water,
Here, where tiny bubbles rise
To meet the midnight air,
I swim upstream
Midst frantic fins,
Midst other sons and daughters,
To find that place where I, with them,
Must spawn.

And if the night should shine just right,
And if your heart can find you,
And if the things you've said to me are true,
Then maybe you can find me there
And swim with me to Heaven,
Or maybe, just show up,
And I'll find you.

-jenn

After two broken collar bones
And six concussions,
My season ended,
In fact, I've retired from
Armchair sexuality.
I'm going to spend a few years
Here on the couch with the Colonel.
And then, maybe, if my
Personality heals,
I'll go into broadcasting.

-jenn

It's one of those things no one wants to hear,
But it comes so innocently
From the mouths of babes
"When's your Baby due?"

And then the falter,
The hesitant thud,
"I'm not pregnant."

-jenn

I numb myself
For the Christmas extraction,
Extravaganza of pain and loss.
A sharp shot across the bare nerve,
And all is well.

But in the dark,
I sing unknown 'hims' and praises,
And while I do,
Somewhere, in a parallel universe,
It all comes true,
And the tooth fairy brings me the glittering gown I've always longed for.

And so tonight I smile.
I'm very happy,
For I know that the unseen things
Are more real
Than their sensible counterparts,
And that the riches untold are hidden in them.

- jenn

Turn left at the graveyard,
Down two blocks,
Right just where old man Brown's house burned down,
To the barb wire fence,
With the gate that drags,
And creaks on it's rusty hinges.
I'll be at the pond
By the charred smokestack.

I'll wait for you
With yore fishin pole,
And my grip all packed,
Wondrin
Why so many things burn around here.

-jenn

I've been in the presence of my people today,
A sweet humbling moment of love,
A river so deep, one can't help but drown.
I felt myself going under.
I saw my tears mingle with theirs on the way down.
Every life I've ever lived,
Every person I've ever wanted to be,
Was present in full regalia'ed vitality
Before my open heart and eyes.

My son took my hand and pulled me up
From the baptism of awareness
When he said he felt the very same way.
He had gone down, too,
And someone had snatched him out
Of the rushing waters
By the dark chestnut brown of his hair,
By the starry dimples of his great night smile.

"People don't mess with the Cherokee, anymore," he said,
Shaking his long hair like a dog.
"Because there 's such a thing now as 'suing,'
And there's a word
Called racist."

-jenn

The sun comes late for work
Decembers days.
Sluggish and aloof,
Sky stays gray.
Lunchtime finally comes,
And one o'clock
Brings the first smile of the day.
He's already thinking night is on its way.
A stiff drink,
Forget about the numbers,
Stumble up to bed
Where cold dark slumbers.

So let the others dream
Of figgy pudding,
Sugar plums and jelly beans,
I'll bundle up tonight
And pray for Spring,
Where sun comes bounding for me
From his bed
And wakes me with sweeter visions
In his head.

-jenn