Mr. Bad Ass

I am the lizard
flicking
the fly

I am the snake
nipping
the rat

I am the belt
whipping
the dog

I am the wasp
slammed
with a swat

I am the sun
choked
by the fog

I am the arrow
flung
by a bow

I am the spear
gigging
a frog

I am the frost
killing
a rose

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Metaphors for a Vagina

at first, a room
without a door

at puberty,
a blood flood

stimulated,
a leaky faucet

a magic button
for eruption

a tunnel trains
hurtle through

pyrotechnics
in a pouch

a torrent-filled
sinkhole

9 months later,
an exit

to the elderly,
a dry crevice

at the end,
a closed door.

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An Introvert’s Prayer

O to be

a chameleon
disappearing
on a green leaf

a bear
tucked away
in a hollow tree

sounds
never played
on the skin of a drum

a bat
sealed shut
on the roof of a cave

a poem
in a book
of moldering pages

a memory
lost
in an old woman’s brain

a trumpet tree
refusing
to bloom

a cloud
clamped shut
on cataracts of rain

the sign
DO NOT ENTER
on a door to my room

By Jan Ellen Glassner, Lighthouse Point, Florida – United States

About the Author

Jane Ellen Glasser’s poetry has appeared in numerous journals, such as The Hudson Review, The Southern Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Georgia Review. In the past, she served as the poetry critic for The Virginian-Pilot, poetry editor for the Ghent Quarterly and Lady Jane’s Miscellany, and co-founder of the nonprofit arts organization and journal New Virginia Review. She won the Tampa Review Prize for Poetry for Light Persists (2006) and the Poetica Publishing Chapbook Contest for The Long Life (2011). Jane Ellen Glasser: Selected Poems(2019), Staying Afloat during a Plague (2021). and Crow Songs (2021) are her recent collections. To learn more about the poet and her work, visit www.janeellenglasser.com.

Feature photo by Ellie Burgin

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