THREE POEMS by JANE VIRGINIA ROHRER
UNTITLED TEEN ROMANCE SEQUENCE
1. when some people say
please, they really mean
do it, or don’t. just
don’t wait.
2. when some people say
forgive they really mean
you saw me once
and now you
don’t. and that’s okay.
3. see how the river
has never met the sky
because you can’t
become the
things you love. you can
look at them from far away.
//
1.11.1
had only wanted to listen to usher in my underwear / I think that you
should let it burn / but we didn’t share that language / the one where
I could say when I was a kid / my mom took me on trains at night and
/ I didn’t want to smile at the men on them / if I said that to you / I
would’ve gotten that look / that meant / it’s not that serious /
wasn’t allowed with you / to drink bottom shelf vodka / to sleep
through saturday / to delete facebook / to swim in the quarry / after
dark / quoting truman show / good afternoon good evening and
goodnight / those things meant I was / taking it too seriously / that
artist thing / to be sad /
could say / woke up tired / could say / ate dinner in the dark / could
say / have dreams about my friend’s grandpas bed / how it sagged /
how they kept it around / anyway / after he was gone / could say /
love you / any of it / wouldn’t have said /
how it felt /that time / toward the end / before the end / right before /
the drive home / long drive / from your house / through the blueish
winter dead mountains / reading kafka / sadly down at the street
as though it were his own bottomless sadness / that moment / the fog /
the old song radio / alone / traveling through it /couldn’t stop /
couldn’t do the motions / anymore / the lonely / leaking /
//
untitled
In college at night we all sometimes collected on couches
covered in Salvo blankets
and our feet touched, and we shared sips
of Sprite and box wine
sick with pressure of living after
“things got bad,” money, food, corn crops, Xbox live
someone is smoking & someone is
covering the smoke detector with tape
and someone is calling their Dad
and saying “just text it to me” and
Jersey Shore is on the tv Snooki and Jwoww
are dancing and getting dressed
and they are not beautiful but regular and proud
and they sweat and hug in the dark with strangers
and they do each other’s eyeliner
and we love them and maybe they really are beautiful
and their eyes match the streetlight glare out our windows
and our eyes are tired and match the tv eyes
and someone is snoring and someone is saying sorry
and someone is saying I’m so glad you’re here.
Jane Virginia Rohrer is from Southeastern Pennsylvania, a place she loves and misses deeply. She currently lives in Wilmington, North Carolina where she is pursuing an MFA and selling vegetables at a co-op. Her work has most recently appeared in Peach Magazine. She tweets at @janevirginia and uses the internet at jvvne.tumblr.com
