Poems by Jenni Conklin

“Musings” for June 25, 2009

Today I’m featuring the work of Jeni Conklin, a senior in the Challenger Early College High School program housed at CVCC, who wants to study illustration at Rhode Island School of Design. Jeni was in my creative writing class at CVCC last semester, and it didn’t take her long to establish herself as one of the best and most unique writers in the class. In fact, her work became so strong that several of her poems were published in Wild Goose Poetry Review.

Sleight of Hand Tricks for Those Who Have Bad Eyesight

ginger boys in summer time
keep you going with
long hair and long strides
leaving you on the front lawn
the grass prickly
their fingers long
one by one they leave you
one by one they leave you
ginger boys in the fall
keep you going with
clipped words, clipped hair
leaving you at their doorstep
the carpets soft and lonely
their limbs stretch for miles
one by one they leave you
one by one they leave you


Lonely City

Behind the screen door
he stands, squinting into the sun as it comes up
white paint chipping
off the front porch
split lip healing from the
fight in the parking lot of the Winn Dixie
dow the road
freckles peeling off his shoulders.
She packed her secrets
into the cut in his lip
sealed it with a kiss
and ran off with the boy who
won the fight.

Dead and Gone

You said,
“I’m the type of girl who can handle herself.”
I nodded.
You left a coffee cup
on the inside of the window.
When I drive by
I can see it
and I think of how you
left trails wherever you went
in the house
how you never slept
under the sheets
how you never kept
any of your secrets.