Featured Poet - Jenna Mabus

DO YOU (I) LIKE ME?

Isn’t it sickening,

how my skin and bones envy hers?

How I study her body

in hopes that the time spent doing so

can supplement my attempted replication

As if analyzing the details

isn’t self-destructive devastation

As if my estimation of the lacking inches

will supplement me with

an ingredient from her secret recipe

(it doesn’t) so,

I supplement myself with

the same air that she breathes

Isn’t it pathetic,

to be assuming her sources?

As if the encrypted messages she sends me through her Instagram photos

are more than just a personal, chemical imbalance.

I’m not green at math, but

suddenly I’m convincing myself I have all the calculations

to figure out how I can look like someone 4 inches taller than me

and using her popularity

as a reason to starve myself,

but I have never even wanted to be popular

I guess I just yearn for control

yet, I’ve possessed guilt and defect,

I’m failing my secret research project…

I guess I’m just projecting.

Is my body the problem,

or, is it your eyes?

Do you like me?

Do I?

ONLY YOU

Only you

can feed my eating disorder

Plant a little seed

enough to hold me over

POISON FOREST

I archive my thoughts until I run out of storage

they take all the space in my clean little forest

they cut down the trees, make the air hard to breath,

they show me the water, but it’s just a tease.

their throats soak it up scream such unholy words

then float polluted air for so long it hurts

Nothing can live here. The birds fall from the sky.

My body rots, but heart hammers-

How am I still alive?

DECRIMINALIZING TEA

My mom says, “A cup of tea can turn your whole day around”, and

I love how that sounds. As if,

a cup of tea won’t

burn my tongue to scratchy-numb and

claustrophize my airways to sticky-streetways.

My mom says, “A cup of tea can turn your whole day around”, and

I love how she thinks about tea. She

clearly doesn’t have Somatic OCD

I say, “That must be nice”.

ABOUT JENNA

Jenna is an up-and-coming poet whose work has been featured in Scarlet Dragonfly Journal and Tusitala. Dreams and mental health are some inspirations for her writing, and is motivated to continue reframing what is scary into art that feels valuable. Additionally, Jenna has written a journalism story for PBS Next Avenue.

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