THREE POEMS by ROSE JEANOU
Hinge Date with an Undergrad
We hate each other
for the same reasons
We want. What is desire
If not lack—what is hope—
Like skinning the fat
layer off the boiled milk,
I plucked you from the algorithm.
My outer membrane
Manifest organ
Red as the expression
of summer plans—Your
unpaid excursions
in developing nations,
my second job apocalypse—
Art dreams thwarted.
Eventually, I crack.
A blister wrinkle
An unasked choke-out:
I wish I had someone
to split the rent with.
I overhear at a party
A funny expression—
“My Paris Hilton dutch oven.”
The remnants of a shepherd’s pie.
My roommate’s dancing with my ex.
There must be many people in the world
as lonely
as I am.
At the dining room table she says
She hadn’t thought me a humorist.
I said I’m not—
I always get rejected.
It’s funny how
You don’t know I’m sitting here
A borderline away
Your mannerisms grafted on my face.
I hit her with—
Western history says the first lesbian
was a philosopher-poet.
The second, a vampire.
So you think
I’m not funny?
In the window
A little white cat
Hunts bunnies.
Rose Jeanou (she/any) is a lesbian writer and high school teacher in Providence, Rhode Island. Her poetry, fiction, and essays have been featured in Sinister Wisdom, HAD, One Art, and more. Read more of her work at rosejeanwrites.com or follow her on Instagram @rosejeanou.