The Gods of Homelessness
Places I called home in two thousand and ten:
A fine mattress of ferns and horsetails
By the ocean a salty bedroom beneath cedar boughs
Under a tarp roof erected in back yards
I was kept safe in the court of this Church
Where Nuns corralled a herd of six year olds inside
Sweet sisters of mercy turned blind eyes
Let me sleep safe underneath these oaks.
I was blessed with lentils and with love poems.
I was blessed by Gods you’ve never heard of.
I ate sardine and sriracha sandwiches beside the pacific.
I ate boiled fiddleheads in the rain,
I positioned strategic tin can rain catchers above my head.
I met at least a hundred Gods of kindness
I met at least two dozen street smart Gods of generosity.
The Junkie
The dread spider the afternoon shakes the weirdo haircut the animal bar rioting
the antique footstool the working mama my bathtub tortured my windsock
limp my wango lifeboat put out on the curb backache death your dew dew door
knob your wild worldlessness you attitude adjuster our forever yawn
spazz overtime naps matchpoint a plasma thrown pillow against a windowpane
cracker skin and casual bear life a normalcy handshake a just pope stick a lewd
leopardskin coat my silence eating custard my custard pussy purring I am purple
and poisonous I am tired of this game my cheek hollows twitchy my spoons
twisted in agony and the elusive dollar dollar bills dropped in the toilet bowl goodbye.
The summer of my twelfth year
I was wearing pristine
White jodhpurs
When the symbol
Of my ladylife bloomed
I was laying roses
Among the snow
I was weeping rubies
All over the sheets
I saved the petals
Preserved in pages
Drops dried in vials
To use as future magic
My hands bloodstained
I prayed to Yoni
I prayed to Sekhmet
Goddess of my blood
I cried to lost childhood
I painted red footprints
Through deserts of Jasper
Crystal blood of Gaia.
Jennifer Wesle is putting the finishing touches on a poetry chapbook. A lifelong home-schooled student, she is working on double major in English and Psychology through distance education. Her poems are published or forthcoming in Bluestockings Magazine and The Furious Gazelle. Although a born and raised west coast Canadian she leads a semi-nomadic life and is currently living, finding inspiration, learning Italian and eating in Italy.
Follow her on Twitter: @jennyiwesle
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