Sally Dreams about Punching the Tyrant

                                                               [Jennifer Macbain-Stephens]

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I can do it while
you’re recording
inside out
all spiny and black dots
don’t look for the world
to be better
your lips pressed tight
front to back
you won’t even feel it
when you hit the floor

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This is a found poem. Text from: Grant, Mira. Symbiont. New York. Orbit, 2014. Print. Pages
114-116. In a symbiotic relationship: sometimes one species benefits at the others expense, and
in other cases neither species benefits.

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The Tyrant Talks About Implants

 

I want to ask you a question
how many people have them
on both sides
we have evidence
women have fought long and hard
to control their own bodies
in this country
a lot of women will
be upset when they know
what is going on
take drugs to
kill their implants
achieve an isolated state
but they can have
a better existence
there could be danger,
yes, but now
just treat yourself
as if you are
already dead.

 

This is a found poem. Text from: Grant, Mira. Symbiont. New York. Orbit, 2014. Print. Pages
109-110. In a symbiotic relationship: sometimes one species benefits at the others expense, and
in other cases neither species benefits.

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Jennifer MacBain-Stephens (she/her) went to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and now lives in Iowa where she is landlocked. Her fifth, full length poetry collection, “Pool Parties” is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press in 2023. She is also the author of fifteen chapbooks. Recent work appears in The Pinch, Cleaver, Dream Pop, Slant, and Grist. She is the director of the monthly reading series Today You are Perfect, sponsored by the non-profit Iowa City Poetry. Find more of her work at http://jennifermacbainstephens.com/.

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