jessie knoles is a midwesterner living in seattle. her work has been at queen mob's teahouse, green mountains review, third point press, and cosmonaut's avenue, among others. she is the interviews editor for vagabond city lit, and is a poetry editor for HOBART.
2 poems by jessie knoles
OUR LAST WINTER
let’s not compare x’s and o’s
let’s not get out of bed until our mouths turn dry
let’s remember how good a thunderstorm feels,
keep the snow in our freezer until may
how about baby i buy us some spinach
how about baby i make us a scramble
(you) fix the heater and i’ll take off these layers
(i’ll) fix my brain and take off these layers
baby the tub is broken and i want to take a bath
baby let’s plug the bath with this spinach and get on in
let’s not think about how cold it’ll be when we get out
the grass will renew itself once the snow thaws i
will renew myself once my skin is scrubbed
once my stomach’s full once
you’ve touched my back once
i’ve died a little bit
CHOOSE YOUR OWN SCIENCE
an alarm but for when something bad is going to happen / this alarm can have infinite snoozes / this alarm can turn you into an embryo / you may choose to remain cloud dust / you may choose to swallow the universe / a big bang that doesn’t have to happen because you never unzipped your pants / they never took you back to their bedroom / you never saw them from across the room / you didn’t hear what they said to you / the music was never turned on / you never bought alcohol from the corner store / alcohol was never before distilled / people used to pray for fun / people used to count sand for days / bugs used to dress up as humans / dinosaurs were never philosophical / an alarm / for when the universe is a pebble on the bottom of your shoe and you instinctively dig it out / for when newton’s third law is soon to be broken / our equals and opposites