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

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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.

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