So I put the noodles on
And set the timer,
And went off to do other things.
Time was up
And like Robert Oppenheimer
I went to be a destroyer of worlds,
But my noodles weren't done.
The stove was barely on---
At 2.8 instead of 5.

I think I'm going to learn this lesson:
I'm on the range, and the salt
And the Wesson Oil has been added,
A dash of garlic and fatted calf
And the prodigal son.
And when my time is up and come,
I'm gonna be done.
I'm turnin myself up and on,
And when they find me dead,
At least they'll know
That once, I was alive.

-jenn

Sixteen pounds is an ounce these days
And not worth more than four.
And you can eat a bushel of corn
But your body will still want more
Because there aren't the same nutrients in here
That there were in just one heirloom ear.
The hybridized production year
Put the tractors in overdrive
And I guess the world has ended,
But no one stopped to see,
For seed time and harvest is over.
One last lonely bee
Ponders what world it may fly to
Where nature still pollinates,
And animals can still merely eat and poop
And the pits will actually proliferate
So that even humans and all their greed
And ingenuity can't screw that up.

-jenn

We are just balloons that want air.
We huff and puff
And blow ourselves up
And reinvent the stairs,
The wheel, and the mouse trap extraordinaire.

And while we gloat
And bloat over spurious crowns,
We often let our deals go down
Unattended.
We find ourselves suspended
In rooms that are not our own,
Where we have no choice
And no control over the remote,
And therefore, can't even change the channel,
Much less ourselves.

-jenn

There are places I can go.
The way is long, the pace is slow,
And I don't always appreciate
The tiring journey.
But when I take the bullet train
With you, we cover the terrain
Fast and in a hurry.
We get there and beyond.
I feel we're hovering somewhere
Long forgotten or rarely reached,
Some nirvana, some perfect peach
Of a heavenly destination.
And what about the way?
I wish it could've taken us one more day,
One more mile, or two,
With you.

-jenn

When I saw that look on her face, I quit.
I quit worrying and trying so hard.
Because she had already accomplished everything I had always wanted to do,
And at a much earlier age,
And yet, here she sat with that look on her face.
And I have seen that exact face many times in my own mirror,
And I know what it means.
It means it's never enough.
It's never good enough.
It's never done.
It's never complete.

And when I saw that look on her face, I knew
It never would be.

So I decided then and there that it could be.
It could be enough right now,
And now, it is.

-jenn

When the cat mrrrrrows,
And he has the food he likes,
And I've just given him water,
And scratched his whiskers real good,
Then I know he wants to pick a fight
With me or the dog.
Better pick the dog today, buddy.

-jenn

All of my children died when hers did.
I felt her pain to my core.
I identified with her completely
And none of my theologies worked anymore.
Nothing made any sense.
Nothing was right in the world.
For if a child can die before its parents,
Then nature is to be abhorred
By the vacuum that we try to call reality.

But can there be two sets of laws?
One for idealists with rose colored destinies?
One for scientists who say that every effect must have its cause,
And every cause its fate?
For we say whatever goes up must come down,
But certain rockets launched up
Into the heavens will never return,
Unless we call reaching the sun
And entering it's atmosphere
And burning into unrecognizable ashes
"Coming Down."

-jenn