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

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A THING by MERE JACKSON