The Wardrobe's Best Dressed: "Trick Rider" by Jen Tynes

Left in the dark, we all get

a bad case of epithet

mouth. I know you

remember what I used

to call you. Daisy chains

extend the grieving

process, we held

position until squirrely-

eyed dawn when all

props are strung

out and recoiled

again. How many

weeks since the longest

day of the year? Tie knots in

our shirttails to remember and

71 all the soul singers drop out

the trees. Still there

are sirens in unison, calling after

all reason. “I thank you,”

we repeat in rounds,

to keep our tongues

from freezing, warm the cheat

sheet, boogey off

lava and ergot.

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.