| Jennifer Poteet's poetry has been published in many online journals including: Stirring, Bovine Free Wyoming!, Conspire, The Absinthe Literary Review, The Melic Review, Samsara Quarterly, The Red River Review, Naked.Poetry,etc. Work has appeared in the print journal Skidrow Penthouse and in The Best of Melic Review: Three Years Online. Her poem "Roadmaps upon Embracing," has just been nominated for a 2003 Pushcart Prize. She lives in suburban/urban New Jersey with her husband (also a poet) and 3 male cats. She belongs to the Hudson Pier Poet bi-monthly workshop in Manhattan, is active in the NYC poetry community, and has attended Peter Murphy's Cape May, a NJ writers retreat for the past two years. |
| Judges:12 |
| In Kentucky they're known to quote scripture in court so in my defense I chose their straight sour mash whiskey. Hard to find a decent suit, a good litigator. Old boy lawyers drank buttermilk, bellies full of their momma's pies as they asked me to answer leading questions. I had been so advised to move around the law in a bluegrass bar near Stent called "The Joint." But, free associating, I pleaded for clemency; reminded the jury there was no king in Israel, and that every man did what he thought was right in his own eyes. Meanwhile, snakes slept wrapped around birch branches; the devil fiddled and I prayed: Who will bear witness for me, now, here in the trees? |
| Bryant Park in August |
| Over 90 degrees. He looks at girls. The slope of a jaw, a particularly firm derriere sheathed in linen pants. Girls walk by in mules; their tanned legs taunt the sun. Two redheads in halter-tops lick chocolate ice-cream cones. Embrace, then giggle. Then break away. A skinny black girl: bald head, white dress slices between on roller skates. An ambulance passes, the siren screams its' urgent message. |