Jennifer & Jennifer by Mike James

One Jennifer is a painter

She is famous

People collect her paintings

Her brushes

They open doors for her

Say, “So pleased to meet you”

They let her talk

Without interruption

They nod when she speaks

Go back, write down profound witty things she says

So, people also collect her words

They are a woman’s words

She uses bright red in her paintings

She paints with both ends of her brushes

She always paints as a woman

In Brooklyn, wherever she is

***

Jennifer two writes her own words

Says them loudly

Sometimes she slurs them

The slur often sounds like “Fuck you”

Jennifer two is a mother

But still thinks dirty/sexy/oh yes things

Writes, “A long word here. A short word there”

Kids and men and women and men inhabit her poems

Jennifer two loves water

Water is often in her poems

The water might be in glass on the floor

Beside a pair of socks

Her feet are always cold

Even when she swims

She collects socks

She wears them even on the beach

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Mike James makes his home outside Nashville, Tennessee and has published widely.

His many poetry collections include: Leftover Distances (Luchador), Jumping Drawbridges in Technicolor (Blue Horse), and Crows in the Jukebox (Bottom Dog.) He currently serves as an associate editor of Unbroken.