J, K

Marvyne Jenoff
From:   Crackerjack Umbrella. Twoffish Press, 2008.

The best jacks in my small-J world are crackerjack
and an old-fashioned game of jacks (jax?).

No black-jacks in my world, no hijacking,
just hijinks (hijinx?).

Still, of the coloured four-suit deck I'd choose
the jack who stole the tarts,
or did the knave do that?

My crackerjack prizes once
a princess ring, blue airplane,
tiny knife,
the only knife in my pink-backward world
except the one that slices my persimmons.

Swords, sabres daggers—keep them old
and safely long ago as Shakespeare.
In knives it's the archaic K
I covet, I invoke
by speaking Crackerjack.

And Jack and Jill cut in with
water? altitude?

And a poem jackknifes onto the page
with a double K
and there's my day.

Poem 1 | Poem 2 | Poem 3 | Poem 4 | Poem 5 | Poem 6 | Poem 7 | Poem 8 | Poem 9 | Poem 10

Marvyne Jenoff's works copyright © to the author.