Three poems
Jennifer MacBain-Stephens
Oct 8th Quiet Now: That’s All
unwelcome across the green fake grass
getting his shot off
wash down your rebelliousness
a bit long in the tooth
two hundred bucks
you can’t be serious
malice towards my fourteen-year-old self
my glasses and acne
I dream black eyed unwholesomeness
sixteen in Tangiers
Mother I’ve something
to tell you
the last time
she said you are not going
for your health
your gorgeous sadness
I want
to torpedo the sophisticated
Anything to not be
committed
Text from Rice, Anne. Exit to Eden. New York: Harper Collins, 1985. Print. Pages 41.
Oct 9th Make Believe
I’m doing it for the pleasure
Don’t you dare
hire any Philip Marlowes
to search for me
the outside of the dark
the heated inner world
behind a violence face
Text from Rice, Anne. Exit to Eden. New York: Harper Collins, 1985. Print. Pages 42.
Oct 10th Rocket
We’d left the earth’s atmosphere
pulled off the impossible
squeezed shut against
noise and thighs
we rush forward
who is more blue sky
than when lashed?
Order me to the island
The white sand
the I told you so’s
rose trellises and red hair
I couldn’t accept or rebel
you little bastard
I have always been this
Text from Rice, Anne. Exit to Eden. New York: Harper Collins, 1985. Print. Pages 44.
Jennifer MacBain-Stephens went to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and now lives in Iowa where she likes to rock climb. She is the author of four full length poetry collections and twelve chapbooks. Her chapbook, “Teeth Have a Hardness Scale of 5,” is forthcoming from Sputnik and Fizzle Press. Recent work can be seen at or is forthcoming from The Pinch, Cleaver, Yalobusha Review, Zone 3 and Grist. She also hosts an indie reading series sponsored by Iowa City Poetry called Today You Are Perfect. Jennifer MacBain-Stephens is online at jennifermacbainstephens.wordpress.com/.