Jen Karetnick

The Golden Orbanizer Speaks the Shadorma

“The beauty of the world, which is so soon to perish, has two edges,
one of laughter, one of anguish…”
—Virginia Woolf

A solo
cabal posed in
cloud towers,
I spin slick
stabilimenta into
a strict no-fly zone,
 
nuclear
advertisement for
hummingbirds
and finches.
I’m a billboard, my hunger
a hedge investment.
 
Try and shred
this bright courtesy
with tweets
of hot, dead air.
I’ll vanish these protections,
roast you in cocoons.




--
Jen Karetnick is the author of seven collections of poetry, including The Treasures That Prevail (Whitepoint Press, 2016), which was a finalist for the 2017 Poetry Society of Virginia Book Prize. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Crab Orchard Review, The Missouri Review, One, Prairie Schooner, Spillway, Verse Daily and Waxwing. A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, she works as the Creative Writing Director for Miami Arts Charter School; a dining critic and lifestyle journalist; and a trade book author. Her most recent publication is The 500 Hidden Secrets of Miami (Luster, September 2017).