Blemished Allison Jenks Poetry

local_library Blemished

by Allison Jenks

Published in Issue No. 3 ~ April, 1996

The octave of us is an avenue
of blackbirds with marbleized wings
As the blacksnake licks the bobcat
in a Herculean daze.

Your impotent homeland spread
the last deep-sea of freckles
on your icy, olive face.

Your blemished hands belong on you like
Auburn liqueur on pale blue tablecloths.

I swim in the black of your eye until it
liquefies like blues in autumn.

We talk like friends of jewel and berry bandits
Erasing halls of bored handwriting.

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Allison Jenks' poems have appeared in : New Orleans Review, Art Times, Wisconsin Review, American Literary Review, and Midwest Poetry Review. She was a James A. Michener fellow, awarded by John Balaban, at the University of Miami's M.F.A. program, where she was Editor In Chief of Mangrove.