If when you call or text

And I answer you

So quietly and so subdued

Don’t worry 

Just know

I’m listening to

Kinda Blue, by Miles Davis

And if the text turns satin sheen

I’m listening to Blue in Green

By Miles Davis

And if you think I’ve caught a buzz

Even though I don’t smoke 

Or drink

But you think that stir in your pants

Is not quite as obvious as Fran Dance

(By Miles Davis)

But it sure seems like one of us may get lucky tonight 

I’m listening to Stella by Starlight

By Miles Davis

But if a pep comes in your step

And a brassy tone

Rings out from your telephone

It means all my hay is baled

And I’m listening to Love for Sale

And you can say So What

But what else have you got to lose

You can’t lose nothing with All Blues

Baby

So....If the day has taken its toll

I say

Lose your day but gain your soul

Listening to some Miles Davis

-jenn

 It’s your lucky day!

Lucky for you

I was listening to

Al Stewart play

The year of the cat when you called.

I said hello,

But did you know 

That I was just about to cry?

The sky is turning gray.

“Why don’t you?” I hear him say.

But the keyboard had a mellow way of pushing me onward,

And I have other fish to fry.

The bonfire in my mind is raging high,

And now it’s night.

I’m blowing out the lightbulbs just like that!

How many will it take to screw one in again?

Maybe just one if he comes in the year of the cat.

-jenn

Hello?

 I roam the streets

Trying to see what’s going on.

I call out.

The streets don’t answer.

I’m just trying to see the quickest way to make a buck.

I called my mom two days ago,

And she ain’t called me back yet.

The dancers make good money,

But they spend it all on crack cocaine.

That’s the price they have to pay

To be willing to put their make up on again 

And smile.

I called my mom two days ago,

And she ain’t called me back.

I just wanted to tell her happy Mother’s Day.

I got to find something that will answer me,

Something that will make me willing

To put my makeup on again and smile.

I’m done tryin to be philosophical.

I got to put my make up on and smile.

-jenn

Hungry 

I was that kid in school 

That the teachers didn’t think ate well

I didn’t 

I didn’t eat well

But what I learned early is

Eating is overrated 

We really don’t need 

To eat as much as we think we do

My grandmother came from the Old Country

She was not worried about me

Whether I ate or not

Was not a problem to her

But this morning here on the high plains 

I started the day by running a gazelle down

It’s not so much that I crave meat

Or that I love the kill

(Or is it?)

Or that waiting’s such a thrill for me 

But I have others depending on me now

Who need to eat

Who want to

It’s part of their personality 

I’m a lioness on these plains

With hungry cubs 

Who don’t understand the Old Country

And so I started the day by running a gazelle down

I think slowly it is changing 

How many, again, is it until we get to seven?

It may take another generation 

Or two

Or threeeeeeeee

Or maybe just one more gazelle

Or maybe just one more morning run into the sun for me

But today I started the day by running a gazelle down

-jenn

 Noncommittal 

They say it takes less muscle to smile than frown,

And so maybe you won’t be so tired

At the end of the day.

I’m trying it out,

But I gotta say,

This smile is so heavy.

I think I’d rather carry you around,

As blue as you are,

Than lunk this smile

From town to town

Trying to cheer the whole world up

For no good reason. 

This heavy noncommittal 

Nonmusclaturated smile...

What kind of thing in this life

Doesn’t require muscles?

I don’t trust it.

Maybe that’s why

I find it so heavy.

I myself have a recommended daily allowance 

On muscles.

But I’ll try.

For you,

Blue as you are,

To carry around 

This heavy noncommittal 

Nonmusclaturated smile.

-jenn

 I’m metamorphosizing.

I wonder if you’ll like me when 

I come out of this cocoon.

I’ve always been a moon person. 

What if I start to like the sun?

Will anyone still recognize me?

Crawl in here with me, TrueLove.

Let’s morph together 

So I will know

At least one someone else will show up beside me.

When we learn that we can fly.

For two are better than one,

Don’t they say?

How could I know,

When I’m blind in one eye

And can’t see out of the other?

But maybe part of this changing process

Will open my thousand eyes as spots

On the Lepidoptera 

And then I can see.

I want to see you.

I want you to see me.

Love,

💙💙💙💙💙💙

LadyBlue

aka

-jenn

 Tacking

I’m sure to a passing observer

She appears

As a bird in a gusty day,

Whose feathers are splayed 

Askew like an umbrella

The wind blew inside out.

Mercury’s in retrograde.

Communication carries doubt,

Or, at the very least, it should be dubious. 

“What’s wrong with you!” her mother shouts.

But my friend has stalled,

A technique employed by

The greatest football teams

Right before they win.

She’s considering the wind,

And has decided she doesn’t want to go

Any old way the wind tries to blow her.

So she’s tacking

Happily,

Without regard to the shouts of the crowd 

Or her mother,

Because my friend knows exactly what she’s doing,

And she’s doing it well,

And she would never tell anyone 

To go to hell,

Least of all her mother

On Mother’s Day.

-jenn