LADY DAY

Never seen a day so dull even
my brother rocked himself in the dim corner
of the kitchen   Cook doesn’t like us but the man
we call Sir Man does   And a wooden spoon
can’t beat me thanks to my million skins   What is
the mixtape for being a lady now? Hum a bar
embroider Thou Thou Thou   Become a silent fortune

DAD TRIED TO READ MY DIARY

All my life I wanted to disappear
by pony cart, by plague, by blade
Mary says  Execution is the means
for wings outta here  Two thieves hung
She said it wasn’t so bad
I haven’t seen anyone die but there’s
a boy in the stocks  angel-faced
muddy  They say he’s got the hands
of a murderer  If we’re lucky

#TBT

This day
one year back
I was madly in love with
well I can’t say his name but
suffice to say it begins with G
and I actually ate a snail
off a stile &
then made up words
that sounded an awful lot
like a witch’s hex
I was scared thinking Man,
what am I gonna tell
my mom  my dad   Brother,
they’re gonna burn me
at the stake  But
now I know that
true love is just
two people deciding
to wear blinders
together and dying
Because they can

Jess Feldman‘s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Vinyl, Paperbag, Blunderbuss, Tuesday; An Art Project, and elsewhere. Her manuscript Call it a Premonition was chosen by Zachary Schomburg as winner of the 2015 BOAAT Winter Chapbook Competition. Jess received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Hampshire. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.