Jacob Saenz

Evolution of My Profile

Before, being bald & brown
badged me a ‘banger:
black pants w/X color
 
shirt & head shaved short
branded me in X gang,
even if they hang in
 
a ‘hood not my own,
I still got thrown on
a cop car’s hood & trunk,
 
punched in mouth for being
in a marked car cruising
down the wrong streets.
 
Now being brown & bearded,
boarding trains w/a backpack
bursting at the seams w/books,
 
I receive suspect looks
from cops patrolling
w/bomb-sniffing dogs
 
as if I should be muzzled
& leashed like their animals--
collared & crated in the dark,
 
taught how to sit & lie
down & beg for treats,
only set free when I learn
 
not to bite back & snap
my jaw at the hand
petting my head.
​

---

Potion

after Eileen Myles
 
I grew a beard
to stop being                                                         
cast a gangster
w/goatees
or mustaches
thick & dark
to match the hard
stares they carry.
Can you name
a gangster
w/a beard? Maybe
Rick Ross but he
isn’t who he says
he is & neither
am I. I’m not
a gangster. I’m
a wizard & I store
wisdom in my
hair, which means
I’m dumb b/c
my beard is short
& trimmed but still
I stroke it
like I’m deep
in thought,
concocting
a potion
like a poem
to give
the illusion
of wizardry.

---

Love's the War's on TV

Love, the war’s on TV
& nothing else is on.
Come watch it w/me.
 
We’ll use LCD technology
to crystalize the bomb.
Love, the war’s on TV.
 
Tonight it’s for all to see
like a movie marathon.
Come watch it w/me.
 
No need to be PG,
all the kids are gone.
Love, the war’s on TV.
 
Forget about sleep;
we’ll stay up until dawn.
Come watch it w/me.
 
We’ll count every casualty
w/crosses on the lawn.
Love, the war’s on TV,
come watch it w/me.


 


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Jacob Saenz has been a recipient of a Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship and a Letras Latinas Residency Fellowship. He currently serves as an associate editor for RHINO and works at a library in Chicago.