House Hunting

a different folded down
masculinity: ironed or plastic

blue work shirt
or Norfolk tweed

turn the key to
brown velvet coats

grow blue business ledgers
from the throat

taste cologne in the stomach
Brooks Brothers three piece suits

gray or brown or silver
scratched on with a smile

where I grew up
in high apartments

diamond pane windows
were sewn into fibered turtle necks

old stone cottages
weren’t anything personal

Do you carry copies of books?
Then my body is yours

British fur lined gloves
Burberry raincoat

half hidden fancy
cashmere sweaters

I touched something hot

old fashioned and upside down
your face: a bath tub style Porche

I’ll scribble inside your cover:
you are a brand new mansion

I don’t buy.

(Text from Rice, Anne. Exit to Eden. New York: Harper Collins, 1985. Print. Pages 188-195.)

~*~

Massage

your florid little hand
makes me feel completely alone

rub the blood in forward
and back again slowly

beauty is supposed to protect me
how odd fingers are

climb to glorious heights
but don’t touch the center

this outrageous relaxation
snap stop it

I failed in my head conversation:
a pain demonstration

but that’s what I signed up for

(Text from Rice, Anne. Exit to Eden. New York: Harper Collins, 1985. Print. Pages 188-189.)

Jennifer MacBain-Stephens lives in Midwest and is the author of three full length poetry collections: “Your Best Asset is a White Lace Dress,” (Yellow Chair Press, 2016) “The Messenger is Already Dead,” (Stalking Horse Press, March 2017,) and “We’re Going to Need a Higher Fence,” tied for first place in the 2017 Lit Fest Book Competition. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. She is also the author of nine chapbooks. Her chapbook “She Came Out From Under the Bed, (Poems Inspired by the Films of Guillermo del Toro)” recently came out from Dancing Girl Press. Recent work can be seen at or is forthcoming from The Pinch, Prelude, Cleaver, Kestrel, Yalobusha Review, decomp, and Inter/rupture. Visit her website.