I puzzle you.
Because you're from Reality One,
And I'm from Reality Two.
And I've studied your syntax,
And understand you,
But can't bring myself to speak
Back to you
In that tone of voice.
It's considered voybal abyoice
Where I come from,
And we buffaloes that roam
Prefer encouraging woyds.

-jenn

I strut because my joints are filled
Half with gas and half hydraulic fluid.
I limp because I've wrestled with a god.
My headlamps squint because I majored in sunspots
And minored in calligraphy,
And I squeak because my alternator belt's completely off.

I'm running only on my battery.
I've had to shut all my extras down.
I coasted until the radio quit me,
And that's how I found out
That it was the music that had kept me going
All along.

-jenn

I learned a lot from looking over your shoulder in a dream--
"How to open the double secret compartment
Where people comment what they actually think,"
By taking the notebook and turning it over and sideways,
Then flopping it over again from the bottom twice.
Well, it looked classy the way that you did it,
So never mind it didn't work for me,
But while you were reading, I could see
What you actually thought about the actual comments,
And better than that,
I got cookies all over your browser.

-jenn

Are you trying to say
That the stardust I am made from
Wasn't created in the Big Bang
Like yours was?
That you have some cosmic leg up on me?
That my matter can't turn into energy,
Or vice versa,
Because somehow I lie outside the margins of physics?
That I have no right to breathe
Because all the air is your air?
Well I have news for you.
Not only do I put my pants on
One leg at a time just like you,
But I've just put one of my legs right into your pants,
And I'm about to wear them to town
Without any suspenders.

-jenn

I go back to see the place
Where you made love to me.
I can't find it.
I can picture it in my mind
And am desperate to know
Where to go again
So you will love me.
But they've turned it into a dorm,
And young people chat in loud, empty voices there,
And laugh in nervous titters.
And so I go back to my room
And pour the rainwater out of my typewriter,
And start over.

-jenn

I listen carefully to the rain.
There's a rhythm to its fall.
A wave of drops drumming soft
Patters on my rooftop.
And when I close my eyes I see,
The rain is dancing down on me,
Doing an ancient rain dance on my soul.

And with that, my pump is primed,
My hearts pours out with love
In time with its tympani.
My body longs to rise and dance
Along the horizon and sing
The chance lyrics of old
That I can recall.

But mostly I want to turn and bow,
And ask you for this minuet now,
And see
If you will come and dance with me
In the rain?

-jenn

Sometimes I know things.
And I knew
that I was in love with you.
And maybe I thought
Love lived in one corner of the brain
On a nice clean lot,
Self- contained behind a picket fence.
But what I didn't guess
Is that love prowled untamed
In every strand of DNA,
And longed and pined and chewed its leg
and could never be contained.
And I didn't know
That I would want to fuck you so,
That I would be lit with a burning fire
And melt from the inside with the desire
That you spawn in me,
That I would do anything,
Anywhere with you,
And want to engulf you completely inside me,
That I would run free
Like a rabid she-wolf in heat,
Wanting, needing to breed, to merge,
To combine with you,
The primal urge to replicate your DNA too.
I had no clue
That you
Were the one who would evoke
And stoke
And stroke and poke
Such earth mama feelings out of me,
But I discovered your secret identity
As the sexiest earth daddy this world has ever seen.

-jenn

When my mind is right
And I relax
And let my body hum
At it's natural frequency
I close my eyes
Your face overwhelms my insight
And then I know
That the only thing more right than this
Is to somehow be more present in your life

Thoughts of you unravel my DNA
And as it blooms
I unfurl
I want to wrap you up in myself
Bring you back into me on my tongue
And taste your sweet love as you become a part of me
That will never die

"Thank you for shopping at Walmart,"
The automated cashier thang says
As the doors are already slipping open for me to exit.
"Please use the pin pad to complete your transaction,"
I hear it say to the next in line,
And soon, they, too, will be hearing
The automated valediction,
A pure enough sound,
Though something about it
Rings more attune to "Hit the road, Jack,"
Or, "Don't let it hit ya where the Good Lord split ya."

-jenn

How do you say, "pull over," in Spanish?
Cause I think I've really got to go.
I made a mistake and drank a little water.
Ehhhhhhhhh.
Ohhhhhh, I really should have known better.
Some proverbs are true,
And we should heed them,
While some, however clever,
Are only designed to keep your heart in a ditch
And your soul on pepto bismol.

-jenn

It was an unwanted gift,
And so it sat unopened in the nursing home room.
And as it went,
There became less and less carbon dioxide in the air
And more and more of oxygen,
And finally, the strange homeostasis of death.
But all the woman had really wanted
Was to be loved,
And thought of often,
And visited with kindness.

And now someone has bought the gift at a thrift store
And delivered it to me,
And the wrap has sat so long
That the tacky ends won't peel,
And I couldn't open it if I wanted to,
Which I don't,
For I , too, just want to be loved,
And thought of often,
And visited with kindness.

-jenn

I dip my fingers into the moon on the water
And silently stir the light into the deep
Slowly the outer light becomes insight
And darkness parts like a veil
And understanding like sleep
Comes over me

And how many things have come from nothing?
And how many times has time covered the trail
Of ripples that began as something
And vanished as if nothing had ever prevailed in the world
Except your unpredictability

But tonight I see that every tear I've cried
Has been saved in a bottle
And every time you said I took it wrong
I cried again
And all my teardrops are quantumly entangled with reality
And finally the pull from deep within and out there very far away
Aligned
And I see that I was right

-jenn

I weep for you, my friend,
Because your troubles never end,
And you can't see clear
To know that they are caused by fear.

But everyone should start out as a mother,
So everyone can see themselves
And see each other
And know
That love is the beginning of all things.
Love is the meaning.

And every child should grow
From Love's great base,
And feel the sun shine sweet upon her face,
And be understood and known
In his right hour,
And feel the serenity and power
Of living courageously.

-jenn

I'm pretending to sleep
So you can sleep,
But you're pretending to sleep
So not to wake me,
But I feel the tell as we spoon together,
A swelling in your sweet emergent self.
Your relentless side cannot lie,
And I can see,
You want to cut down the cherry tree with me,
And tell the whole world about it.

So come and nuzzle the back of my neck,
And cup my breasts in your tender loving hands,
And whisper, sweet, the prayers into my ear,
The sexy words you know I want to hear,
"Are you awake?"

-jenn

This used to be an Avalon
Until it started hanging out with the wrong crowd of cars,
Hyundais and Volkswagens.
Then it got a tattoo on its bumper,
And it's bonnet got pitted from racing into great clouds of bugs on the interstate.
It got to huffing gasoline
Until ethanol wasn't enough anymore,
Moved up to the hard stuff--
Nitrous.
And now I don't know who it is anymore.

-jenn

Do you dream of me at night
The way I dream of you
(When I sleep)?
But when I lie there awake,
I think about you, too,
(And I wonder)
Should our thoughts and dreams meet in the air
Over some mountain whose granite could magnetize
The iron in our blood to form
Snowflake patterns
And join us together as one,
Would we,
(Could we)
Be so happy there?

-jenn