Ivan Jenson - Five Poems

It’s A Swamp Thing

I’m no

mind reading

shapeshifting

broomstick traveler

and I don’t

have a widow’s peak

and fangs that impale

pale women

and I don’t wear wolf’s fur

or bang my chest

while holding an ingénue

in my hairy palm as I scale

the Empire State Building

and though I am a

regular zombie

before my morning cup

of coffee

I am still undead

roaming around

like a character in a

dystopian novel

hoping my

omnipresent

third person narrator

will allow me

to live

to see

a sequel

or two

 

 

Boo-Hoo

I was abducted

from the cradle

by unidentified

crying objects

that showed me

the sentimental

splendor

of saucer shaped

tears

since then

I have often

been found

wallowing

on planet

melancholia

where

we have

cried ourselves

an ocean

and overflowing

emotion

is the language

that we speak

we are all

miserable

and we

would love

your company

you can

use any

frowning photo

as your passport

 

 

 

Easy Does It

I have stopped

trying to

keep up

with those who

insist on sprinting

in this marathon

in fact

I have lost track

of the fast track

and while

I slowly

simmer

in my juices

the flash in the pans

sparkle like

the movie theater pop corn

pop of the paparazzi

who butter up

the flavors of

the moment

and I no longer

play hot spot

hop-scotch

into the wee after hour

clubs of the morning

I am so over

the valley

and the hill

but you can best bet

you will find me

at the grocery store

reading the gossip gospel

like all the other people

who need People Magazine

 

 

 

Winning!

Let ‘em see you

sweat the big stuff

show ‘em

it is not effortless

or mindless

and that you

have put

hours, days and years

invested time, money

and blood

into the final product

and if this fails

all is lost and

that you refuse

to let even one

door close

and if it does

you are

going to

be one sore

loser

with one

sore foot

 

Miss Communication

I don’t listen to anything

anybody says

instead I listen to their

tone of choice

and I take in the

essence and incense

of their perfume or

cologne

and I wait to see

if they touch me

for emphasis

everything else

that they have to say

anyway is written

in the studious pupils

which play hooky

in their eyes

and then comes

the telling pregnant pause

which gives birth

to the great unknown

that is shared between us

and then they start

to hunt around for

the words that they

have lost

which are scattered

like foreign currency

on the ground

and that is when

I add my two cents

to the conversation

and I can tell I have

already lost them

with my gibberish

jabberwocky and then

just in time the

movie of moments

which we now share

begins and we just

sit back and watch

in honest to God

silence

for awhile

Ivan Jenson’s Absolut Jenson painting was featured in Art News, Art in America, and Interview magazine. His art has sold at Christie’s, New York. His poems have appeared in Word Riot, Zygote in my Coffee, Camroc Press Review, Haggard and Halo, Poetry Super Highway, Mad Swirl, Alternative Reel Poets Corner, Underground Voices Magazine, Blazevox, and many other magazines, online and in print. Jenson is also a Contributing Editor for Commonline magazine. Ivan Jenson's debut novel Dead Artist is available as a paperback and on Amazon Kindle and Nook. His new novel a psychological thriller entitled Seeing Soriah is now available as an eBook or in Paperback on Amazon.