ISSUE SIXTEEN: Realmy Styles | next poem →

Watching Horror/Watching Harlow

Jessie Janeshek

The best resurrection                                          is on the cactus trail and sinny
     in Duovision

or in the vinyl showerhood                               clear with glamour trim

     or on a sunny Xmas                            wolfing down a hotdog
     alone in your convertible

mustard-flowered luggage                                cosmic joy and local pain
     frankincense and cigarettes.

I don’t know if this passion                             is better or worse
          all your limitations                        float through the decades

shapely legs on ladders                                       busty nesting dolls
          all your audio splatter.

                                                                      I whet the axe
                        start watching the films                          drive four hours to see
          know the sin king/the sun king
                                                                                  your black roots/broken kidneys
                                                                      I put a wolf in.


                                                                       You’re alone in the hot springs
                                                               with your embossed wine glass
                                                                       your mind and your rag curls unraveled
                                                               your red pumps and your demons
                                                                       an American dollface
                                                                       praying myrrh prayers to change.
                                                               Your life is naked
                                                                       except for this green velvet ribbon.

Jessie Janeshek's second full-length book of poems is The Shaky Phase (Stalking Horse Press, 2017). Her five chapbooks are Spanish Donkey/Pear of Anguish (Grey Book Press, 2016), Rah-Rah Nostalgia (dancing girl press, 2016), Supernoir (Grey Book Press, 2017), Hardscape (Reality Beach, forthcoming), and Auto-Harlow (Shirt Pocket Press, forthcoming). Invisible Mink (Iris Press, 2010) is her first full-length collection.

ISSUE SIXTEEN: Realmy Styles | next poem →











ISSUE Sixteen: Realmy Styles

Jessie Janeshek
   Watching Horror/Watching Harlow

Laura Filion
   Growing Out

Timothy Berrigan
   By Letting Rooms

Stepy Kamei
   A Wolf Stalks Amongst Her Sunflowers

Alejandro Escudé
   The Republic of WannaCry

F. Daniel Rzicznek
   from Leafmold

Josh Silver
   07/13

Kimberly Prijatel
   assembly of god

Dawn Pink
   Cotton Morning

Amanda Tumminaro
   Evening Routine

Natalie Crick
   Ocean Voice