No return address on the soundstage
. mad world teenage party games. I feel safe
in this solid, my sorrow letting the nightclub stay open
. a little bit longer. A tropical bird made of lights
. bluffs under the Hollywood sign.
I read of death half the night
. let me have my diary time.
. Let me have my sadness hot pink and khaki
blue eyes on the soda shoppe tablet and time.
. Fame cycles through a little bit longer
hit me again in orange boots and a kaftan
. on the dried-up western set I think I like it.
I don’t mind an experiment in feeling
. playing the maid and the mistress at once
magnetic/dynamic not a cowgirl/just am
. but I try too hard queen of curl antics.
Soundtrack the scene where I can’t save the chimney sweep
. and Jesus hurls us through the jazz age.
Huddle round the Scopitone like it’s your slaughter
. Technicolor lips and my heart-blood tepid.
I’m not that fast-forward the doctor says tranquil
. past my dead-city cry
. past your knife in the ashtray
past this summer I shatter the dolls in my bedroom
. I cover my stuffed toys
. with lace blankets like ghosts.
***
Jessie Janeshek’s full-length collections are MADCAP (Stalking Horse Press, 2019), The Shaky Phase (Stalking Horse Press, 2017), and Invisible Mink (Iris Press, 2010). Her chapbooks include Spanish Donkey/Pear of Anguish (Grey Book Press, 2016), Rah-Rah Nostalgia (dancing girl press, 2016), Supernoir (Grey Book Press, 2017), Auto-Harlow (Shirt Pocket Press, 2018), Hardscape (Reality Beach, 2020), and Channel U (Grey Book Press, 2020). Read more at jessiejaneshek.net.
