And now I can be thankful for a gift I didn't want.
In a single twist of fate,
Great tears of joy shed fragrance to the day,
And the boughs of thankfulness
Hung low, so laden now with fruit,
And even by-standers received a bounty.

And now I see,
There's always one more bend
Up in the way,
And one can always turn
To see something beautiful,
Even if it's hidden in
Amongst the everyday.

-jenn

I walk along the beach at Okinawa at midnight.
The same wind blows
That blew in that night from Saturn,
And in one silver sweep,
It touched me.
The chills began at the back of my ankle,
Ran all the way up the back of my leg,
Over my right shoulder,
Over my left breast,
And around my belly, spiraling inward, until it came to the depth of my navel.

Tonight the salty spray reacts
With whatever the unseen finger used for ink,
And I can see, in the blacklight
From the moon's dark side,
Musical notes, treble clefts, and bass,
Quavers in semi and demi and hemi.
I smile
As the wind comes across me again
To play them
Through my hollow places.

-jenn

Did I come from your rib?
I think I did.
Our skin is the same,
Our marrow.
The closest distance
Is straight and narrow
And strewn with petals
From your love so fair.
For love is the way
That leads to you,
Lined with alfalfa
And feverfew,
And your fingers in my hair,
And mine
All over you.

-jenn

Driving home yesterday,
I came to
And realized my hand was in a funny fist on my thigh,
With my thumb under my index finger.
I instantly thought of my Gramma.
She used to sit like that,
One hand on the table with her fist just that way.
I've done this before and had the exact same thought,
Instant memories of her holding her hand that exact way.
My first instinct is to change my hand position,
To be different,
To relax my fist and hold it a different way.
But then I think of her,
And I put it back that way on purpose,
And I think of her some more.

-jenn

I make laps in life.
So, if I don't understand
Your intentions
On the first lap,
Or the second,
Will you let me make another
While I blow big pink bubbles
With my bubblegum
And run
Holding my purple shorts up
With both hands
While the winds of enlightenment
Gale force
In beautiful, downtown
Santa Anna, Texas?

-jenn

Night doesn't end,
It just turns blue
When the first light
Shines off the sea,
And bounces up
Off the coral and shells
Of crab and the dark whales.

It lightens all day
To a sunny white light,
And at noon, a blinding timer,
And everyone knows
To go get their eyes off the line.
They're finally dry.

But the blue doesn't end
When the night lights out,
It just streams into the darkness.
With a thread of longing,
It vanishes in and disappears,
Like the tail of a kite
Whose string has snapped
On a rugged oak,
And blown completely free.

-jenn

The trees sway on the backdrop of the sky
They move gently into her
Loving ever loving
And they have loved her
For so long
As long as they remember
And she cries
Because she didn't know

Come she says
Love me
Love me
Come now she says
And let me show you
And make up for every forsaken minute

Time's unceasing wind has blown
All her fearful clouds away
And closed the jealous eyes
And slowly all her stars uncross
And she is wide open
With arms outstretched
And ready
And sighing
Hoping that it's not too late