This selection, chosen by guest editor john compton, is from Inheritance with a High Error Rate by Jen Karetnick (Cider Press Review 2024).
I Pose
For a Selfie with Venom
My Termite Service Technician
Who Is Still Sometimes Recognized
as His Nineties UFC Persona
as a fist
as a fist the inconsistent growth silhouette
as a fist the inconsistent growth silhouette of an heirloom tomato
as a fist the inconsistent growth silhouette of an heirloom tomato
furrowed by the paths of insects
as an insect
as an insect that burrows
as an insect that burrows in the humid flesh and juice
as an insect that burrows in the humid flesh and juice of tropical
wood frame houses
as a house
as a house like a retired competitor
as a house like a retired competitor on his second career
as a house like a retired competitor again invested in the
opposition
as the opposition
as the opposition who drinks
as the opposition who drinks holistic remedies as if to purge
as the opposition who drinks holistic remedies as if to purge the
losses of fights and women
as a woman
as a woman also giving
as a woman also giving up
as a woman also giving up what she has won and loves
A 2024 National Poetry Series finalist, Jen Karetnick is the author of 12 collections of poetry, including Inheritance with a High Error Rate (January 2024), the winner of the 2022 Cider Press Review Book Award. Forthcoming books include What Forges Us Steel: The Judge Judy Poems (Alternating Current Press, 2025) and Domiciliary (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2026). Her work has won the Sweet: Lit Poetry Prize, Tiferet Writing Contest for Poetry, Split Rock Review Chapbook Competition, Hart Crane Memorial Prize, and Anna Davidson Rosenberg Prize, among other honors, and received support from the Vermont Studio Center, Roundhouse Foundation, Wassaic Project, Write On, Door County, Wildacres Retreat, Mother’s Milk Artist Residency, Centrum, Artists in Residence in the Everglades, and elsewhere. The co-founder and managing editor of SWWIM Every Day, she has recent or forthcoming work in Atlanta Review, Cimarron Review, NELLE, Pleiades, Plume, Shenandoah, Sixth Finch, Verse Daily, and elsewhere.
