It's #tbt! Enjoy this great one from SWWIM Every Day's archives!
the whole interview’s about her girl. D says, I wanted her to know but know my way, not at school or from some jerk. So one day I say, “We should talk,” & she’s freaked. We sit down in the kitchen & she starts crying. (So I’m thinking, She knows…) “You got Cancer! You got Cancer!” she starts screaming. D snorts, We laugh about it now. How she was so relieved I wasn’t dying. * Others in town talk about D’s son finding her nude online, or fellow yacht-clubbers finding her & showing him her webcam antics, her customer ratings on her “Escort” ads. My son was bound, says D, to notice my overnight bag. I stuffed it with lingerie. I mean— jeez… she shrugs. There’s a bit of dead air for the boy, then he’s gone from the interview. * D scans the Starbucks where we perch on stools. Says she’s failed the bar exam a lot, her ex is a nerd, that she wants another degree & to write a memoir, But I’m so exhausted! Then it’s back to her girl, When I take my girl on errands, I point out all the jerks in town who’re clients & we laugh. An orgasm is like a pedicure for these guys. I mean—jeez… Who does that? she shakes out her long, frosted hair. She’s fifty-three so she’s got some grey but it looks classy. I wonder if she’ll start pointing. * Instead, D looks back at me, One time we saw this big ass politico I’ve known for years slurping pancakes with his wife, at IHOP. She says his name & I’m ready to stop the recorder. Too funny, she sighs. She’s so far away she squints at me, says, My girl’s cool. I nod. We talk about all our guys. It’s all good. * Just wish there wasn’t side effects. She leans away but we’re closer now—like mother, like daughter. & the monied men in Starbucks seem to be closing in as the place crowds, but I’m hooked. Side effects? I feel nothing. Like that song! After nine years of this, she sings, I feel nothing nothing nothing at all…
Jennifer Jean's poetry collections are VOZ, The Fool, and Object Lesson, which explores sex-trafficking and objectification in America. She's also released the teaching resource Object Lesson: a Guide to Writing Poetry. Her poetry, prose, and co-translations have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Rattle, The Common, On the Seawall, The Los Angeles Review, and as an Academy of American Poets “Poem-a-Day.” She's been awarded fellowships from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, Disquiet/Dzanc Books, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Kolkata International Poetry Festival; as well, she received an Ambassador for Peace Award from the Women's Federation for World Peace. Jennifer is the senior program manager of 24PearlStreet, the Fine Arts Work Center's online writing program.
12/19 / Meet the Artist with visiting poet-in-residence Kristen Renee Miller / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 6:00 pm EST / Free
12/19 / Poetry Reading with visiting poet-in-residence Kristen Renee Miller + Arsimmer McCoy / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7:30 pm EST / Free
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