I go to bed early
And often
Because I dream
And dreamers need their sleep
And when the deep blue
Creeps over me
And I see the stars
I think of you
And fall in love
Over and over
As the heavens toss and turn
So restlessly
And constant as waves
That churn the sea bed
And the sea
I feel you
Churning me
And I fall in love
Over and over
-jenn
Gravid
I’m at the back of the room,
At the bottom of the class.
I’m not used to being here,
But I’m finding out,
It’s a fecund place to be.
I see good people
Who want to help me along,
The potency of sweetness
From those who offer
To carry my books to school.
The golden rule—
That those who have the gold
Make the rules,
Does not apply here
At the back of the room,
Just a “live and let live” epiphany,
And an epigraph scratched
Onto a desk
That teen pregnancy is truly
What nature intended.
-jenn
“The good book doth say
That one should pray
When the wind’s in the tops
Of the mulberry trees.”
“And why is that grandma?” I heard the child whisper.
“Because the angels come down to roost
To get out of the breezy sky,
And if one will listen,
One can hear them sing.
And their singing is such
That earnest prayers availeth much
Because when one hears the angel songs,
One knows to sit for a long time beside them and listen
And not bother to ask for anything.”
-jenn
The heavens, too, fall.
They scatter their showers carelessly,
Cold drops falling with certainty
On favored trees, and with decided
Uncertainty on others.
Did Emily say, “The soul selects its own society?”
The heavens fall aplomb on some.
The chosen ones feel that they have mattered.
But sometimes here in Oklahoma,
The showers are scattered,
And we like it that way.
-jenn
Kiss The Sky
Now I’m going to settle in,
Get warm in my bed,
Watch the tornado warnings on tv,
Be ready to pull the covers over my head
And kiss my ass goodbye.
Jimi Hendrix kissed the sky,
But the sky doesn’t even return my calls.
I do everything for everyone in my life
And all I want is the sky to love me.
But it’s dark tonight,
And a terrible cloud is spinning slowly,
Menacingly, over Cleveland County.
I’m terrified, yet, even with this sick feeling
Inside my tummy,
A sorry hope tries to squeak
Its sorrier rhetoric out to me:
“With the atmospheric lowering
This is as close as thou may’st get
To the sky coming to see thee.”
Maybe I will get that kiss
One way or another?
-jenn
The rain
On a cold Monday morning
The jazz
On my radio
So very blue
My car drives itself to your heart
But you’re living in a gated community
Well i’m late for work anyway
So there’s not time
To tell you all the reasons I have
For wanting to make you mine
But let’s just say that none of them are good
It doesn’t matter
Because your hearts living in a gated community
How I feel when I pull up to the gate
And I see someone coming out
And I’m prevented from going in
Who is it that’s so lucky as sin
To have been with you when you committed the crime
So you married her so she wouldn’t have to testify against you
And I’m in the witness protection program
And your heart
And the rest of you
Is living in a very gated community
But I have the rain
On a cold Monday morning
And the blue blue jazz
On my radio
The notes come to me
On the cold blue
The rain drops falling
Just the same on everything
The just the unjust
Without impunity
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Yes... even the gated community
Of your heart
-jenn
“What are you doing?” I asked my friend.
I saw her putting deodorant on the armpit of the outside of her shirt.
“I’m putting on deodorant.”
“Yes but most people put it on their skin,” I said,
“And try NOT to get any white streaks of it on their clothing.”
“Well I want men to see me for who I am,” she declared.
“And I want my prospective man to know
That I wear deodorant and a lot of it,
And he’s gonna have to buy it for me
When we get married!”
“Oh,” I said,
And suddenly understood what backward approaches I’d always had
To attracting the right type of guy.
-jenn
