Allison Eir Jenks


Fabric of a Kiss


Young boy tattooed himself
To my velvet temper

My untamed parade.

Slapped him with melody,
he choked and smiled
in my hedonistic web.

Coma in my lane,
he swam for my height,
Thinking that was all
that kept him from me.

On a day
any heifer would do,
When an obscure light
was leaking from his eyes,

like some buttery monster,
I granted him a minute
on that vinyl couch.

His dizzy feet came at me
With a swollen breeze
All I saw were chaotic scraps of light
and stray, red knots

My counterfeit kiss
peeled him to the skull.
Nine years of him
Packed in a kiss.

He heard parachutes of violins;
Swans beaks insisting love.

I saw a drowsy sow.
Still, my lips
tugged him to oblivion


Copyright 1997, Allison Eir Jenks


Allison Eir Jenks is in the M.F.A. program at the University of Miami. She is the managing editor
of the Mangrove Literary Magazine. Her many publishing credits include: 256 Shades of Grey,
Paramour, The Fauquier Poetry Journal, InterBang, The Trincoll Journal, The Internet Herald,
Poet Lore, Art Times
, and Tessera.


Switched-on Gutenberg
Thematic Contents / Vol. 2, No. 2
Back / Forward