Ivan Jenson- Three Poems

Stranger into Friend

I am apologizing  

ahead of time for hurting you

and I am thanking you

before you offer your kind 

and selfless acts

and I am suggesting

we change the subject

even though

we have not argued yet

and I am 

getting ahead of myself

by stopping you in your tracks

to see if you recognize 

the fact 

we have never met

but really should 

in the very near future

like how about

now

 

Alpha Female

I know you are made 

of sin and bones

and I know at night

your dreams set

wild dogs free

to chew the scenery

in the theater of your mind

and I have been warned

by the weatherman of your past

that your sunshine is followed

by tempestuous storms 

that blow down the fences

of defenses

and flood the senses

until one feels as foolish

as Mickey

the Sorcerer’s Apprentice 

who needs to learn

that you are the

dominatrix 

mistress

of the magic

of our love

 

Nostalgic Junkie

If I were to 

get rid of everything

that reminded me of you

I wouldn’t have any possessions left

to possess me

if I were to banish your bustier 

to the Bulgaria of forgotten undergarments

or send your scent to Siberia

it would still linger here on the sweater

you left in my suburbia 

and if I did not keep replaying the old cassette tapes

of songs filled with the audio hiss of missing you

then all I would have in this world 

would be new names, fresh faces 

and the taste of a tomorrow

flavored lip gloss on the lips of the future

and so I will continue to hoard and hold onto 

what once was “our” clutter

because everything old is 

you again

Ivan Jenson’s Absolut Jenson painting was featured in Art News, Art in America, and Interview magazine. His art has sold at Christie’s, New York. His poems have appeared in Word Riot, Zygote in my Coffee, Camroc Press Review, Haggard and Halo, Poetry Super Highway, Mad Swirl, Underground Voices Magazine, Blazevox, and many other magazines, online and in print. Jenson is also a Contributing Editor for Commonline magazine. Ivan Jenson's debut novel Dead Artist is available as a paperback and on Amazon Kindle and Nook. His new novel, a psychological thriller entitled Seeing Soriah is now available as an eBook or in Paperback on Amazon. Ivan Jenson's debut book of poems, "Media Child and Other Poems" will soon be published by Hen House Press, New York