The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: “Trick Rider” by Jen Tynes

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Last  time  I  was  a  conduit  we  had  a  bed  full

of  grain.  I  didn’t  have  to  wait  so  long  to  sink

my  weights  inside  the  body,  as  if  catching  my  clothes

on  a  very  old  nail.  I’d  kiss  the  hammering

girl  between  the  augurs,  millet-‐mouthed

without  a  television.  As  if  they  gather  on  the  line

to  make  it  surface.  I  sequence  the  bone

with  canary  color,  honey  face,  whatever

we  wake  when  we  rabbit  ear.  As  if  burning  barns

weren’t  language  enough,  touch  this

handle  and  finger,  come  from  another

country.  Tell  me    as  if  I’ve  always  been  struck.

 


This selection comes from Jen Tynes’ poetry collection Trick Rider, available now from Trembling Pillow Press. Purchase your copy here.

Jen Tynes is the founding editor of Horse Less Press. She is the
author of four full-length books of poetry–Hunter Monies (Black
Radish Books), Trick Rider (Trembling Pillow Press), Heron/Girlfriend
(Coconut Books), and The End Of Rude Handles (Red Morning Press), and
the author or co-author of eight chapbooks. She teaches writing and
lives in Grand Rapids.

Jane Huffman is a current MFA candidate in Poetry at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a staff eDior for Sundress Publications. Her poetry is featured or forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, Moon City Review, Radar Poetry, PHANTOM, Word Riot, The This Magazine, RHINO Poetry, and elsewhere in print and online. She lives in Iowa City, where she teaches literature in the University of Iowa English Department and serves on the poetry staff of The Iowa Review.

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