a few by – Madeleine Jennings

October 11, 2023

10/21 missed my flight

 

I’m a patriot with no head
I’m a head on a spike
And I lost my man legs
They’re in my big truck
I want a baby
I want a bloodline
a life of service
To cloak a life of despair

Jam on the brakes
And let me hear myself think
Let the babies out
Let the blood. I want peace
Meaning silence
I want my mom to calm down
So I can leave home
I want dark and I want light
In the meantime I’ll take the dim middle

 

 

2/27

 

Locked in side of my horror with a cross word puzzle
Slake my thirst and soothe my damaged mind.
I am only moving so slowly and jagged because I want to get some sun this hot winter.
I want to face the sun and there is much to smell in this land of battered senses.
It works when there’s a lot going on it quiets the noise in the head.

 

 

6/19

 

Well I’d like to know a pleasant life. Bring me to the last straw and I will get there. Well
Once it breaks, who knows. Maybe there is nothing, maybe
there is a gate. I promise I will change either way. Please
help me find my joy. I need to rest my ears

 

 

6/20

 

Thanks be to the man who speaks loud I need
a compass you give me a fine compass some direction

I know where I am going, death, and that is
not important right now you give me a way

Big voice you tell me how to get there you
get me living better and the volume

Makes it urgent like there is a reason

 

 

9/19 gold plated

 

Insisting on happiness, we eat barbecue, whatever there is left, we consider how people act without mercy in the name of love.
We spend the night in a big room, rented in blood, staring at gold.
I will forgive this slight, but not before we set it beneath the magnifying glass.
We take out its insides.

 

 

9/21 Maria Hernandez Park

 

My neighbor walks down the road
With a mannequin bust
His bags are packed
For attention.
He speaks softly
To his woman
It is casual
That they are placeless.
My lord hangs the sky
On a coat hook
His manic dogs
Nip at its fringe.
Everyone in his world
Plays volleyball
They smack the sun
Where they can see it.
This whole whistling day
Reeks of night time
The short dogs lap
At the growing cold.