ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Jen Town’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Mid-American Review, Cimarron Review, Epoch, Third Coast, Iron Horse Literary Review, Lake Effect, The Literary Review, Crab Orchard Review, and others. She earned her MFA in Poetry from The Ohio State University in 2008. Her first book, The Light of What Comes After, won the 2017 May Sarton Poetry Prize from Bauhan Publishing. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her wife, Carrie.
Telephone, 1988
Paper Girl (1982- )
Hands, Mouth, Ear
A game for three or more, the players cup palms as if in open prayer, as if to bring a bowl of air into the ear of another. Instead, it’s a whisper, it's air with words in it. The ear is a shell into which we pour the sea, the ocean a secret we share. And what will the end be? Glee at this garble, this girlhood Babylon, when words melt away like snow. Later, they’ll learn some words are stones set to sink you.
This poem is part of a series of poems written in the form of museum placards that respond to imaginary artwork. The artist, “Paper Girl,” shares my birth year and the work of art corresponds to a late 1980s childhood.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
