Jena Crowe

It's Friday
which means it's crazy where I live.
The noise level went from a box fan
to stadium seating
...

I want to make a crooked paper weight with you
hands on the pottery wheel, just like Swayze.

Brush your teeth first, ghosts eat garlic
...

brushing my teeth too long.
mouth wash
swishing slowly, falling asleep at the sink
...

Hi poets.
it's time I graced you with my dark purple presence,
peasants and the poor alike...
...

White trash
goat walkin'
no shirt
meatheads
...

There are a couple of boys
ditching Summer school, skate boarding
down my street.
...

I gave a guy a fried egg sandwich today-
I knew there was a hair on the plate and I found humor
instead of a napkin before I served it to him.
...

...

it's not that i can't smile
when you look at me

i can,
...

you don't like when i pinch my lip,
because i'm about to say something
that's over your head
and you can't duck when it's my voice
...

the toaster oven ticks constantly
reminding me something is almost ready to
burn my tongue
make me curse
...

it's a million little pricks to my heart
the way the strings speak in tongues
if only I could dance the way they do
without feeling like there's toilet paper
...

this isn't about Jesus
should it be?
probably
...

I can't believe that show is still airing.
Let's welcome back Kotter
and tell Grimm
to hit the road
...

but it's on a Friday this year!
you know you are super giddy about that,
even if you're old and out of school
and you work Friday nights or Saturday mornings...
...

have you figured out how to click on poems
when the home page doesn't load?
or forum
or top 500
...

I can do purple. I have a lavender tongue
when I'm eating plums,
or red seedless grapes
that aren't even red, or on the spectral coordinates
...

if words were unnecessary
we wouldn't have poets, storytellers, pen pals, authors,
publishers, cleared houses,99 cent stores,
or mechanical pencils
...

I love that you resemble an inmate,
drive a nissan altima
and give women flowers when they cry
which waters down my admiration
...

if the Bible said that we should all submit to each others poetry
we would be out of one's tree, berserk in the kitchen
rounding the bend
at a dead end
...