Read More: A short interview with Jennifer Fandel.
Breakfast After Your Death
A month after you shot yourself in the head, you came back,
quiet and bright-eyed, ready for a laugh. I’m so hungry,
you said. Six-foot and broad shouldered, you hiked the morning
through the knee-high snow, punching through the icy crust,
to watch the waterfall freeze itself into scalloped wings.
quiet and bright-eyed, ready for a laugh. I’m so hungry,
you said. Six-foot and broad shouldered, you hiked the morning
through the knee-high snow, punching through the icy crust,
to watch the waterfall freeze itself into scalloped wings.
When you walked back into my life as if you were there
all along, leaning on my porch railing in early spring light,
I understood how appetite might conjure a buried man.
I went to the cupboard, poured golden flakes into a bowl
and splashed in milk until the corn rose to its edge.
all along, leaning on my porch railing in early spring light,
I understood how appetite might conjure a buried man.
I went to the cupboard, poured golden flakes into a bowl
and splashed in milk until the corn rose to its edge.
I watched you eat, quiet friend, no shyness left
in your hunger, the spoon clattering bold as a bell.
If only I could multiply those grains under the mild Minnesota sun,
make you stay long past the milk warming and sweetening
and you tipping the bowl up, catching the last drops.
in your hunger, the spoon clattering bold as a bell.
If only I could multiply those grains under the mild Minnesota sun,
make you stay long past the milk warming and sweetening
and you tipping the bowl up, catching the last drops.
Lake Superior Pastoral
In our tent along the Bois Brule,
the overwhelming quiet gave way
to the easy drown of river. […]
the overwhelming quiet gave way
to the easy drown of river. […]
Subscribers can read the full version by logging in. |
Blue Plums
She stewed blue plums the day she died.
They had cooled, their juices thickened […]
They had cooled, their juices thickened […]
Subscribers can read the full version by logging in. |
____________________________________
Jennifer Fandel’s poetry has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Prairie Gold: An Anthology of the American Heartland, Measure, museum of americana, RHINO, Floating Bridge Review (a special issue on work selected by Washington State Poet Laureate Elizabeth Austen), The Baltimore Review, Midwestern Gothic, and A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry. She lives in St. Louis and works in the publishing industry. Read a short interview with Jennifer on writing and her work, Here.