I'm pulling square chunks of hay

Off square bales and letting them fall

Off the tailgate onto the winter brown,

Dead grass, and cows are lining up

Along both sides of the hay.

Cattle lowing as they chew,

And they are happy to see me and you.

And now we count them

Before we think of which one's missing.

Maybe she is springing early

And has gone

Off by herself to have her calf alone,

But we will go and make sure she's okay,

And maybe she will be glad to see us,

And maybe not.

And one more bale to the mare in the old south field,

She whinnies at the sight of us and runs,

Galloping along the fence line

As we drive the sandy lane.

Her belly's big with a foal that she'll have soon.

We give her the hay and a little pile of corn,

And we know, she's glad to see us too.

And I don't always get to go,

But I know winter makes you smile,

And I love to see the happiness in you

Spread across your face like windswept snow.

I think there's something about the animals

And this season of their need,

That brings out the very best in you,

And part of me hopes you see,

I need you, too,

All the time,

And that, in every season,

I'm glad to see you.

-jenn

Beautiful Baby

Jesus said you must be born again.

I considered. I took these words to heart,

And decided if I were to begin again,

I might try for a different start.

I felt that maybe I might have the need

For the speed of an all-American running back.

I've already got the thighs,

So why not have the instincts, heart, and eyes,

The vision to see the play unfold,

The wherewithal to make it to the goal,

The class to hand the ball off to the ref,

And act like I've been in the end zone a time or two,

So I figured only Barry Sanders would ever do to be my father.

And since I have a penchant for art and drama,

Big hair and growing bra-less,

I think, for a mama I'll choose Farrah Fawcett.

Now I feel I'm the only one I have to please, here,

But I hope I haven't offended Jesus

By not choosing someone others consider holy.

I hope the Lord knows I'm only doing my best,

For the most perfect things I've ever seen on earth,

Are Barry Sanders dancing his way to touchdown heaven,

And Farrah Fawcett's breasts in that swimsuit poster 

I saw in 1977.

-jenn

I love you because you make a liar out of me.

You kissed me and shattered all of my dreams.

I have died and gone to heaven twice,

But being with you is like a scene in a movie,

But I'm not acting.

 I am in the throes of love starved agony.

I scream in pain and in delight,

And then I blink and everything is gone,

But it is as if nothing ever mattered to me before,

And maybe nothing will ever matter again.

And when I can breathe again,

I will tell someone to go for help,

But I don't feel like I can live

With not having you.

-jenn

If in the midst of a perfect kiss,

You taste some ethereal cigarette ash and hard liquor,

You don't have to drink or smoke

To wake with hangover symptoms.

When just the kiss awakes you

To pains you didn't know you had,

And the moan that emits from your lips

Is that of a thousand Arabian lamps and lights,

A million hometown desires that lay dormant in you 

Will awake in you tonight.

Then tomorrow when you wake,

For the first time in your life,

You may have no idea what to do with yourself,

And you may question everything you ever knew.

And if you've never had a hangover like this

From a kiss, I pity you.

-jenn

The possum playing possum on the street

Has gone to such lengths to accurately portray!

Stage makeup makes him pale,

And his costume includes tread marks on his tail.

And he's not moving or going anywhere,

But everything in rapt attention waits

For him to get up, dust himself off,

And signal the curtain to come down,

The finale to the play!

If all the world truly is a stage,

I fight the urge to want a better part,

But maybe the best that I can do

Is take what I've got and be awesome,

And quit sleeping through all my lines,

Like a fainting goat or a possum.

-jenn

I was born again last night,

Like falling so deeply in love.

I crashed on a heart of tonality

Such that something new awoke.

I heard a song that touched me,

Where nothing else has reached.

It killed me, twirled me in a ball

And hurled me into space.

I came to life again

Hurtling through the cosmos,

A babe, fascinated by the lights,

Reaching for a rattle

To have something to hold onto,

To shake and be in rhythm,

So I can be a magical part

Of this music from

The heavens.

-jenn

There is 1 problem with my form.

They can't verify I'm not a robot.

I keep touching the screen of my iPad

Right in the box that they're telling me to check,

But it doesn't work for me.

And come to think of it

The automatic doors at Walmart 

Will not open for me.

I'm standing here, almost ran into the glass,

But until some other shopper arrives,

And I can ride in on her coattails,

My presence, my action, my movements

Do not register.

And now I go to wash my hands,

And the motion sensing faucets 

Won't come on.

Another woman rinses her hands,

And I move over to try that faucet

To no avail!

Probably just as well.

I've caught the last trickle 

Of someone else's stream before,

Then gone to wave my soppy hands

In front of the red light on the paper towel dispenser,

And left the bathroom in drip dry mode,

Thankful at least the toilet paper is manually retrieved.

So maybe I am a robot.

And maybe I would be ok with that.

But I dare not look in the bathroom mirror

For fear I will see no reflection,

And possibly discover I'm a vampire ghoul instead.

-jenn