He loves the river.

It's always the same.

The place where the trail ends

Into the clearing

And down to the sand is

A place to stand and take his shoes off,

And stare at the river,

And across the way,

And wade in.

But I am the river,

And the part of me he touches

With his feet

Will not even be the same

When he gets in up to his knees.

And by the time he's in up to his thighs,

If he doesn't realize how much I've moved,

And that another new part of me

Is touching him now,

He could drown in his own ennui,

Before the rest of me makes it downstream.

But he loves the river,

And the river loves him.

-jenn

I see the school bus filled with children,

But I've never seen the school.

Maybe it's just part of the illusion

That everything's ok.

Or maybe it's part of some new concept program.

The children are picked up

And driven around all day

To see what's going on all over the city,

From the safety of the bus

While the bus drivers narrate.

-jenn

I attended a banquet for a close relative.

The emcee belabored the homily,

Going on and on about so much kindness.

My children and I sat in stunned silence,

Wondering if we'd come to the right hall.

But as our relative's name was called,

And the audience duly applauded,

I thought of Lao Tzu's simple statement:

"Those who talk do not know.

Those who know, do not talk."

-jenn

She tried so hard to do everything right,

Going to extreme lengths and measures,

Even washing the tops of the cans

Of vegetables she bought at Safeway 

Before she opened them for her family.

But what does it matter now that her husband has died

In a friendly fire incident in Iraq?

-jenn

I'm not on your radar anymore.

I've gone all Stealth Bomber,

Re-stationed, back home,

Out of Dyess Air Force Base in Texas.

I'm flying so low,

But I can't get under it,

This heavy low-down "what coulda been."

And you don't know it,

But I'm hovering over you tonight,

Low enough that I can hear you sing,

"Abilene, Abilene..." 

-jenn 

I'd like to fall with you

Through the sky,

Touching fingertips together 

In a synchronized falling way

So that I could see your face as we fell.

And I wish that we could live to tell 

About the kind of freedom that is,

You in your way,

Me in mine,

But together we would know,

And never have to say a word about it,

Unless we wanted to.

-jenn

My Medicine Man came to me last night

Riding a horse, and the horse was me.

He told me many things, but in particular 

About my role as a wild beast that works in concert 

With the human beings,

And how to pull the wounded ones

Into safety's shore.

So if you feel me pulling you,

Tugging you, I'm loving you

The way the universe has made my heart to love, 

And everything will be ok for you,

And for many of your generations yet to come,

For you are beautiful,

For you

Are beautifully alive,

And you will live to fight another day,

And thrive in your own particular brand of survival,

And find your way to where you want to be.

-jenn

You are my dark day.

You are the cold wind blowing.

You are thunderheads building in the east.

Come and rain on my parade.

Pour you're freezing sheets of water,

For you also bring life to me.

You are the inside and I am the outside.

You bring tears and I wipe them dry.

But I care less about the parade,

And more about conjuring the water,

And this happiness sustains me in the good times and the bad.

And even amidst the parade,

I perform the ancient forgotten dance

That brings you.

-jenn

When I tremble in the night,

It is not from fear or cold,

But from power trapped inside my skin.

And sometimes I dance

To release it,

Beating my drum and stomping 

To rattle the jangles on my feet,

To create a rhythm that teaches me my way.

And sometimes, naked

And alone in the darkness,

I just stand and shake,

And let the power rattle me.

-jenn

I stand alone at the rail

And pray a midnight prayer,

And not out of desperation do I pray,

But out of faith, my heart speaks out

To resonate with every particle of victory 

That sparkles soundly 

In the night sky.

And when my day of triumph comes,

Like a warhorse barreling through the fray,

And I wear the victor's garland,

I will acknowledge the gracious nods 

That fed my spirit all along the way

From those considered lowly, those unrecognized 

By high society. The lowest of these

Are the only ones who've ever recognized me.

But theirs is all the fodder

That this warhorse ever needs,

To run my race with guts and dignity and power.

-jenn

I came to dread those last days,

And now in hind sight 

Wish I had them back.

But I was scared.

If I could have removed myself,

And taken my heart somewhere safe on high,

So that I could have relaxed, and seen the bigger picture,

Every single thing would've ended differently.

But as it is, I ponder in my way,

Knowing how open-ended that I am,

I wonder,

Did I dread them for they were the last,

Or were they the last because I dreaded them?

-jenn

Great talents ripen late.  
~ Lao Tzu 

You

Are beautiful to me.

You,

Whose sun shines,

Encouraging me

To slink down to my bikini bottoms

And bathe and basque 

In warm love.

Your smile guides me.

Your protective covering

Hides me from jealous eyes

And hateful hearts,

For I've just started to bloom.

-jenn

What I didn't like about the group 

Was they always played the song

With the only mindset of getting to the end,

But I want the song to go on and on and on.

I want to tune up together tonight

And laugh and talk,

And play the music all night long,

And enjoy the sounds,

Enjoy being around you.

And when the sun comes 

Bringing the light of morning,

If we're still tuning and talking

And laughing and riffing around,

May it all be a pleasing sound

Of love and life and living,

In the ears and years of the universe.

-jenn

Would the stars have saved you, Love,

If we would have gone,

As you wanted to, to see them

On that night they fell?

Now I'm looking back on you.

Now I see your falling,

And know it happened many light years ago,

Tho it is only now appearing 

In my night sky.

But tonight, I dreamed I rang your number,

And somehow, you picked up

The phone,

And answered me in distracted syllables

That you couldn't return now,

For you were finally getting some writing done.

So, happy writing to you, Love!

Happy writing to you!

I'm sure it will be beautiful

And breathtaking as the meteoric dazzle

Your mind has always provided,

And I'm genuinely happy for you.

-jenn

I don't know why your sour with me.

I've been storing up

Fat for you for centuries

It seems, waiting for you

To turn your head

And come and bed me down

In the hay.

And all this blubber

Will carry us both over

Many winters, and our young

Will be fat and spry and healthy for it.

And we would thrive very well

You and me,

If you could only see

Who I could be to you,

The very survival of your species.

-jenn

Earth was in a hurry in her orbit,

Had a bit of road rage on the way,

Honked at Venus at the redlight,

When she seemed to be in retrograde

Instead of going exactly when 

The light turned green.

Later on her way, she flipped Mars the bird.

She's had dealings with that turd in the past,

And Mercury can kiss her ass!

Meanwhile Saturn's rings are melting,

And Saturn cries, for no one gives a damn.

They do, but think if she'd quit drinking,

She wouldn't whine so much

From way out there in hangover land.

But Pluto's doin' fine!

She's  happy without wine,

Without food or drink,

And no matter what 'they' say she is!

A planet, moon, or asteroid!

Who knows?! Not even she!

But you won't see her cave in to identify crisis,

For he's seen Enki, Zeus, and Isis

Come and go, but the Milky Way

Is still traveling through 

The expanse of space.

And she knows Earth can be in a hurry in one hand

And poop in the other,

But they're all gonna get 'there,'

Wherever 'there' is

All at the very same time,

Relatively.

-jenn

One day my waiter hit on me.

He cut his eyes this way and that

And said, "You know you don't ever have to eat alone."

And I said, "Ok, that's good to know,"

And raised my eyebrows

To see if he would care to explain or tell me more.

But it hit me later what he meant,

Tho I never saw him again.

I think he quit working that shift

Or at that restaurant,

Which is too bad, but it made me think,

That when I get tired of eating there,

I'll just find myself a new place,

And maybe my last supper there

Will be a dine and dash

In honor of his hit and run.

Someone should have a little fun with this.

It might as well be me and the local police!

-jenn

There are some dreams one would like to recur.

If the heart and soul and body concur,

Then it might be great if the dream,

The soundtrack, go endless repeat,

With no 'al fine' in sight,

Just maybe sometime 

A 'modulate' to a variant key.

But may it always be you

With me, in my dreams.

-jenn

The secret of the Mona Lisa's smile?

Come closer and I'll whisper in your ear.

That is not her smile at all,

But a mere transition.

Her eyes are just about to shine!

Her teeth are just about to show!

Her loving heart is just about to break

In a beautiful way,

So that you can see.....

Her.

And this is what still captivates

Genius Leonardo's of today.

The little spark of possibility

That someone else might be alive,

Even as you are, and might

Want to see your teeth,

When you finally break into that giggle, too.

-jenn

I am a momma.

It’s what I do.

Do you want someone 

To momma you?

I’m a mare, a bitch,

A witch, a sow,

A hen, a queen,

A jenny, a cow,

A doe, a she-bear,

A vixen, a duck,

An empress, and now

And then, I like 

...To be me.

And if I hear the echoes
Of the ancient hillside,
And mother Gaia calling me
To baby baby baby you,
Then so be it,
I will!

-jenn(y)

I sleep hard.

I wake up and don't know anything when I wake.

I only see your face in my mind 

And feel like you have marked me while I slept,

And ..... I smell good.

Yesterday I was checking my mascara,

And yes, worried about how I looked.

Today I can sit with myself in peace,

A naked face and totally nude,

Because everything has started fresh.

My life begins anew today,

Because somebody touched me

And .... I smell good.

-jenn

It all started out as a conversation 

About banana puddin.'

A woman on her cell phone 

Waiting at the bus stop,

Then she got quiet for a minute,

And her expression changed,

And then she said, "I don't know who

You're trying to make jealous,

But it better not be me!"

Then she hung up.

And I thought to myself,

"Some fool done messed up

And ain't gettin no banana puddin tonight!

-jenn 

I am a boot.

I have a bootstrap.

I pick myself up by it

Every time I get up off of the toilet.

One boot.

One butt,

One buttonhole heart,

So deeply etched in stitches,

Two sizes too small,

Til an independent soul stole it

And gave it back all stretched out,

Wrapped up and tucked into 

That other boot that I'd been missing.

So now I'm a pair.

So...there!

-jenn

I'm barefoot,

Standing in the sand,

Swinging myself

Around and around

In my own mind,

Until I'm dizzy enough to fall,

To forget

How well grounded I am.

I'm standing with my hands raised in the air,

A cold gust and icy fingered dawn

Tousle my hair.

The chilly morning pinches my cheeks

And tells me how I've grown,

But all these things are merely echoes,

For I'm alone and windblown.

But I know without learning

How to read the skies,

And silently I speak my truth

And resound in peace,

And kiss the tongue of the wise

And realize all I need from that.

-jenn 

I bought new socks at Walmart,

But everyday I wear the same old dirty ones,

For I am but a dirty sock in a dirty sock bin!

World without end!

Amen, Amen.

Love,

jenn

I'm freshly faced 

And smell like oranges.

I've eaten the honey 

From Puerta Pollensa,

Where bees stay drunk

On nectar of orange blossoms there.

I sat beneath a tree in Majorca 

All day and laughed as the ripe ones fell.

I didn't do anything else.

I didn't count them,

Pick them, or even bother 

To shoo the gnats away.

I did take one orange that fell too close to me

And I gazed upon it,

Slowly peeled it's fragrant rind away

And ate it, slurping every last drip 

And rubbed my sticky palms

Along my naked thighs and face.

Then I laughed some more
And rolled in the dirt and bits of leaves and stems

Until I was covered by the expensive frills of leaf litter

The orchard affords,

And wandered back into the town

Like a wild unkempt beast,

Singing, "It is gooooood! It is goood! It is verrrry goood!"

-jenn