ADJACENT PINEAPPLE

Rorschach

 

The treatment tends

to be visual.

 

The intentional abstracts

are meaningful as planets

 

observed

from far away.

 

                  Lips blotted out

                  of habit.

 

A bat becomes

a mask. A pelvis.

​

Can you see

a way in.

​

​

​

When Off Online Dating

 

A single hair split

into pincers.

 

           Disregard for standard

           upkeep becomes a weapon.

 

           A defense that allows for drinking

           alone.

 

Even in a dress that braces

against this body.

 

Even jelly-lipped!

 

A pout. Another set

of pincers.

 

 

​

Points of Stimulation

 

The thin shine

of needles. Heavy

oils on. Herbs ground

to dirt. Drunk.

 

This is a return.

Let your eyes close.

 

Gather up an ocean

of air on the shore

of your island.

 

Whoosh the wave back

to the mainland. Drag

back to you slowly.

 

There is a lighthouse

of black and white.

A sunset.  A water-

color bruise.

​

​

Jenna Cardinale is the author of a chapbook, A California (DGP, 2017). Some of her poems appear in these rad publications: Reality Beach, Pith, Verse Daily, and Cosmonauts Avenue. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.