My heart waits for your heart--

Like ice about to melt,

Like tears about to fall,

Like laughter rising up so naturally.

My heart listens for your heart,

Like the pitter-patter of kitten's feet

Scurrying down the hall.

My heart is your heart's ball of yarn,

Unraveling at your flirtatious bats

And sideways glances.

I've emptied my heart of everything but you,

So there is room to play.

What are the chances that ice will melt today,

Or that your heart will wait here for me, 

So playfully, on the steps of my soul?

-jenn

The world said I was dirty, washed me,

And then left me out to dry.

My ears are just flaps

Where the clothespins pinned me

To the line.

The shine on my face

Is a sunbleached spot.

My eyes are blind

From wind and rain and time,

Blowing out here

With other things the world forgot,

Didn't want or need.

Too bad I'm not a human,

Or I could bleed, too,

Instead of just fading out

To a pale shade of  blue.

But I have the sky!

And it's a sheet, too,

Just like me.

Sometimes the world gets upside down

And only looks around,

And not out or up.

The world forgets about the sky,

Sometimes, too.

And I notice the sky,

Just like me,

Has faded out

To a pale shade of blue.

-jenn

The food industry advertises,

"Buy my food! It tastes so good!

It'll make you strong!"

But if you eat it,

You'll be hungry all day long for more,

Because the additives and preservatives 

They stirred in are addictive,

And they want you at the store,

Buying their products over and over.

The beauty industry teases you

With how much prettier you could be.

It says, "Buy my creams and lotions!"

They're "magic potions" that you buy by the ounce,

But filled with chemicals you cannot pronounce.

And they'll soak into your bones

And take your natural tones and make them blue,

Until you'll need the healthcare industry, too.

The music industry says,

"Buy my tape, my album, my cd!

Like me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram!

But they don't give a damn

About a song that Redbirds sang

While wind chimes chimed.

And I'm right here.

And I don't want anything

From anybody.

I just want to sing for you

The love I felt going through me

While the wind blew.

I want to give that love to you

In a lovesong,

For free.

-jenn

It's amazing what you can see

Reflected on a glass, when night is behind one side,

And strange lights are on

the other.

I've lain here in the wee hours

Before the dawn

And watched entire landscapes carry on

With one another.

I've watched the mountains touch the sky,

And rivers bed the bluffs with dry champagne.

I've watched mating platelets cool

And marry the hot earth's core,

And I'm not satisfied anymore with polite conversation.

I need something real to touch my sky,

Even though these visions that Ive seen

May not be,

But may be completely made up

By me in my mind.

-jenn

You can write me in the night,

If you want to.

I dream

You do, anyway.

So why not dream with me 

Instead of against me?

I've heard it said, if any two agree

As touching anything upon the earth,

They can ask for what they want,

And it shall be done for them

On earth as it is in heaven.

Let's dream of heaven together,

And see

If we can agree

On anything else.

Let's see how scary it is

To fly like birds

Into the air of love.

I roll my eyes

And wonder why

Man cannot fly

Into the sky

Or into the air of love,

Without seat belts.

-jenn

I wake on the bank of the cool creek,

My back pressed into the sand.

I have wallowed a place to sleep

Like a deer,

But I'm not camping.

I live here.

I will have cattails and lotus seeds

For breakfast, this morning, after I rise.

But for now, I want to lie here.

I think of how it is

To wake with your head on my belly

And your fingers touching me.

I can hear the distant bells ring.

I'm not as far away as you think I am.

-jenn

Two teenage girls sit on a bench in front of Walmart.

Both their pictures are on the poster of missing and exploited children 

Just inside the automated doors.

But no one really gives a shit.

No one even takes the time to look at their faces,

In person or on the public notice.

They are starved for food and affection,

And that is going to make them an easy mark

For some pimp daddy

To come along and offer to buy them a happy meal.

And by the time they make it back to this bench 

Same time next year,

If they do make it back,

No one will recognize them from these innocent pictures,

Taken of them yesterday.

-jenn