Becca Jensen

Mrs. G f/k/a YGY: In Greek Mythology

This time the river is her mouth.  Cigarettes mostly.  And a coral-red lipstick

wandering past her lips.  Every year on her birthday

she swallows a brand new pearl pink eraser.  All those unused bodies stacked against

her stomach wall.  She is too old to be playing such tricks,

but nevertheless by now she has learned a few things.  When she does speak

the ferryman carries her words across.  He has a little boat made of pine

and painted blue. He sings and lifts the coin

off her tongue: “You know how to whistle don’t you Steve?”  Toads

padding on the riverbank.  “You just put your lips together…and blow.” 

Becca Jensen teaches creative writing at Washington University where she serves as the Third Year Fellow in Poetry.  Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Slope, Word For/Word, Now Culture, Sawbuck, and Thermos. 

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