Jennifer Michael Hecht Poems

Evolution settles for a while on various stable balances.
One is that some of the girls like cute boys and some
like ugly older men and sometimes women. The difference
between them is the ones who like older men were felt up
...

We speak of rebellion when the kid
is a hellion and the folks are as mild
as a spoon.
...

I believe you can build a boat.
I believe you can get to water.
I do not believe you can get the boat on water.
...

Guy calls the doctor, says the wife's
contractions are five minutes apart.
Doctor says, Is this her first child?
guy says, No, it's her husband.
...

I

Promises to keep was a lie, he had nothing. Through
the woods. Over the river and into the pain. It is an addict's
talk of quitting as she's smacking at a vein. He was always
...

It's like being lost
in the forest, hungry, with a
plump live chicken in your cradling
arms: you want to savage the bird,
but you also want the eggs
...

We are tender and our lives are sweet

and they are already over and we are
visiting them in some kind of endless
...