There’s a fist
making its way up the Venice boardwalk,
a cocked fist aiming. Its name
is Grendel
& he is a they,
is made
of 5 or so dicks
digging into
1 proverbial palm.
Grendel knows, Hell
is mother
people. He loves himself
enough
to locate pleasure. He doesn’t notice
the difference between
a person
& the hole
inherent in a fist. That many holes
must be forced
wide
enough
to exist. Some weep.
& rabbits jump into
natural kinds. You can punch one
into drywall. The edges of
these are too jagged
for Grendel & Grendel
must not
suffer. Or wait.
So, any little thing
will do.
Like that chick
dragging at her last
smoke on the boardwalk corner.
That shit is a gift. That chick
will do.
Here’s a gift, says Grendel
at this other dick’s apartment
where the chick was
dragged
& done.
Jennifer Jean’s debut poetry collection is The Fool (Big Table); and, her awards include: a 2020 Kenyon Writers Review Workshop Fellowship, a 2018 Disquiet FLAD Fellowship; a 2017 “Her Story Is” Residency—where she worked with Iraqi women artists in Dubai; and, a 2013 Ambassador for Peace Award for her activism in the arts. Jennifer’s poems and co-translations have appeared in: Poetry Magazine, Rattle Magazine, Waxwing Journal, Crab Creek Review, Green Mountains Review, DMQ Review, Southampton Reivew, The Common, and more. She’s an editor at Talking Writing Magazine and a teacher of art-writing at Mass College of Art and Design. For more info, visit: http://www.jenniferjeanwriter.weebly.com
