Image © Faith Eliott 2015
| by Jessie Janeshek | October 12, 2015 |
ice floes pantyhose
fat thighs gravy fries.
What’s in a past life? Wood rot
a bonfire papier-mâché?
In a pure state we enter a beige-flowered slipdress
sad worlds of cats throwing up.
It’s 3 a.m. and the one-armed ex-girl needs a ride
a red hookup or a barbershop choir
sunglasses in black halls
the danger of underrate.
We fed off leather, lived and died with the longball.
We fed off each other
until the tree fell on what wanted to happen.
We twisted our ankles
planting rhinestones like glittery suicides
in the sunflowers out by the high school—
It’s 3 a.m. and the cowboy
drapes the saguros in gold-plated chains.
In a pure state you hand me
a beer a barbiturate.
__________
Jessie Janeshek‘s first book of poems is Invisible Mink (Iris Press, 2010). An Assistant Professor of English and the Director of Writing at Bethany College, she holds a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and an M.F.A. from Emerson College. She co-edited the literary anthology Outscape: Writings on Fences and Frontiers (KWG Press, 2008). You can read more of her poetry at www.jessiejanashek.net.