AutobiographyThe English teacher asks for
an autobiography
from 16 year olds: "750 words, double-spaced."
You write it clean, no bullshit, you think.
The other girl writes
11 pages singlespaced;
mentions, in her cramped script, some
sidewalks
"delineating" the lawns of her youth.
"Delineating!"
and the teacher gave her 100%!
You got only 90% on your life, but
you resolve
never to have anything, especially sidewalks,
delineating your life.
© Jannie EdwardsAutobiography
first appeared in The Fiddlehead No. 184 Summer 1995
(e-poem)
Man finds Treasure
in Map of Wife's Varicose Veins
(Headline from the National
Enquirer)that we should all be so lucky
to mine
treasure in each other's infirmitiesthat we should become gentle
cartographers
of each other's wrinklesthat we could say love
and believe in this constitutionknowing that to invent is both
to discover and to createcarrying credentials
which seem
flawed, fakewe offer ourselves up nervous
at the border
posts of intimacyhope to be met on the other side
with news
of Eldorado
© Jannie
Edwards
(e-poem)
Two HaikuIn the same city
I hear of my brother's death
eight days
after
*In a glance, the bright
leaves of the poplar
turn black
outside my window
©
Jannie Edwards
(e-poem)
Dialogue Because the moon
shines through the tree
I love you.No.Because I love you
the moon shines
through the tree.
©
Jannie Edwards
(e-poem)
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