{"id":2008,"date":"2011-11-16T10:30:13","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T15:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/wpblog\/?p=2008"},"modified":"2012-07-15T20:11:23","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T00:11:23","slug":"dual-purpose-poems-by-ivan-jenson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/dual-purpose-poems-by-ivan-jenson\/","title":{"rendered":"Dual Purpose: Poems by Ivan Jenson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dual Purpose<\/strong><\/p>\n

You think you
\nknow me better
\nthan I know my shelf
\nof self-help books
\nand you have already
\nchecked out
\nmy waist
\nand hairline
\nand wallet size
\nand have me
\nall sized up
\nlike a shoe salesman
\nbut I have come
\nto show you that
\nthere are schools
\nof swimming wishes
\nunder the rippling
\nsurface of things
\nand I have also
\ncome to buy
\na pair of Nikes<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t look up<\/strong><\/p>\n

today
\nI check off
\neach thing that needs
\nto be done
\nand I draw
\na circle around
\nwhat is most
\nimportant
\nlater I am going
\nto write the words
\njob well done
\nand underline them two times
\npat myself on the back
\nand give my self kudos
\nfor not dwelling on
\nmy Chicken Little thoughts
\nwhich chirp, \u201cThis guy is falling\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cycle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Never have been
\na morning person
\nand my mood drops low
\nat high noon
\nhave yet to experience
\none enchanted evening
\nthat didn\u2019t become pitch black at midnight
\nwhen I am force-fed dreams
\nand spoon-fed nightmares
\nthen I am alarmed to discover
\nI am a born again non-believer
\nwho must go through the motion
\nsickness that is
\nwell…
\nbeing alive<\/p>\n

Sensual harassment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Taken out of
\ncontext
\nit might seem that
\nI was throwing
\nstones at your
\nsinfully delicious
\nqualities
\nthe ones you
\nuse to seduce
\nso successfully
\neverything that you
\nwant out of
\nme or anybody
\nelse
\nbut what I
\nreally meant to
\ngive you was
\nan underhand compliment
\nand a ten percent tip
\nand thank you
\nfor being my server
\nand for\u00a0wearing that
\nlow cut blouse
\nat this family restaurant<\/p>\n

Rocky’s Horror<\/strong><\/p>\n

He claims he
\nwas blonde-sighted
\nas he changed lanes
\nunder the red light
\nunaware, until
\nit was too late
\nthat he had
\nnot rear ended
\na Model T and A
\nbut rather
\nthis was
\na real
\ngender bender
\nat the intersection
\nof Transsexual
\nand Transylvania<\/p>\n

Underneath it all<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having dabbled
\nin various identities
\nI have finally settled
\non the mask that is me
\nand the costume that is my attire
\nas I knock on doors and get tricked
\nor treated the way I deserve to be
\nby hook nosed witches or
\nfairy princesses, who like
\nme, just wish to take off
\nthese itchy outfits
\nand sleep in
\nbirthday
\nsuits<\/p>\n

—-<\/p>\n

Ivan\u00a0Jenson\u2019s Absolut\u00a0Jenson\u00a0painting was featured in Art News, Art in\u00a0America, and Interview magazine and his art has sold at Christie\u2019s,\u00a0New York. His poems have appeared in Word Riot, Zygote in my Coffee, Camroc Press Review, Haggard and Halo,\u00a0Poetry Super Highway, Mad Swirl, Alternative Reel Poets Corner, Underground Voices Magazine, Blazevox, and many other magazines, online and in print.\u00a0Ivan\u00a0Jenson’s novel Dead Artist has been published as a paperback and as\u00a0an e<\/span>Book for the\u00a0<\/span>Amazon Kindle<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0and the\u00a0<\/span>Barnes & Noble Nook<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

www.ivanjensonartist.com<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dual Purpose You think you know me better than I know my shelf of self-help books and you have already checked out my waist and hairline and wallet size and have me all sized up like a shoe salesman but I have come to show you that there are schools of swimming wishes under the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,223,219,199,220],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2008"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3232,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008\/revisions\/3232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}