BIO
Jane Rosenberg LaForge is the author of “An Unsuitable Princess: A True Fantasy/A Fantastical Memoir” (Jaded Ibis Press 2014); and a full-length poetry collection, “With Apologies to Mick Jagger, Other Gods, and All Women” (The Aldrich Press 2012). Her poetry has most recently appeared in UCity Review; Metaphor; and Poetica Magazine: Contemporary Jewish Voices. She lives in New York City.
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The Experience of Smallness
Within the skin exist rubrics of
hooks, much like those on
the back side of a bra, or a corset
too modern for strings;
they secure the strata: root and shaft,
just as the jaw depends
on its hinges.
One must twist in ways one might
not have anticipated, to free what
is otherwise incarcerated,
just as a pair of cats detaches
after mating; the tom no longer
fastened to the queen’s genitalia.
For every scratch, squirm, pinch and
random immolation, think of the sex that
has been undone, as the threads
endure failure.
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Vacation
Shouldn’t there be light
where sea greets sky
an acknowledgment of congress
against a common enemy?
Like children and their grandparents
because time is short and time is long
especially on our vacations to our kissing cousins
in British Columbia. They’d often remark how we girls
clung to the affections they offered, as if elsewhere
the supply was curtailed sharply.
The ice on the cliffs where penguins
settled accidently, and said goodbye
to the sun: they could be seen
only by cable car. Closer to the pole,
it got dark increasingly early,
and at home our father asked us,
Do you remember the penguins?
As if this would cement the memory
and therefore our bonds
as family.