
You in the dark room. You’re the only one
I show my childhood bangs to
this hot breeze these porcelain bears
these stuffed flamingos crashing
off the Hollywood shelves.
I say opinion is the low form of solitude
flushing the vitamins out of my system
dreaming cicada graveyards letting my fears run
like blood under the schoolbus.
I’m not sure I understand the prospect of a blank sun
a sexual odor the baby stars fighting
the broken-necked blackness
the tragic landing gently only for me
and your body preserved like a shark in a bottle
that night I donned the tropical costume
embarrassed I had breasts. It looks nice
one star said as my eyelashes dropped
on my negligee in the rain scene
as I walked toward the miniature ice age
and/or the decade for furs.
Jessie Janeshek's second full-length book of poems, The Shaky Phase, is forthcoming from Stalking Horse Press. Her chapbooks are Spanish Donkey/Pear of Anguish (Grey Book Press, 2016), Rah-Rah Nostalgia (dancing girl press, 2016), and Hardscape (Reality Beach, forthcoming, 2017). Invisible Mink (Iris Press, 2010) is her first full-length collection.