Jamais Vu in the Park, in the City Pool

Who is this person I’ve always known?

From the ceiling looking down                     the unfamiliar’s familiar.
staring at yourself
staring at

                                                those stubby fingernails,
          always bitten
                     that unfortunate nose,
          you got from your father

listening to low rumble laugh
all estranged and uncomfortable              a man on a distant continent.

Jump off the brain’s diving board  a new soul continual

memory a sponge too wet.

Jamais Vu, Alone in Your Room

TABLE TABLE TABLE TABLE TABLE 
TABLE TABLE TABLE TABLE TABLE

Tenth time written
no longer a word—
just letters you don’t trust.

Language, a broken swing
on a rusty playground.




Jenna Telesca currently attends Queens College’s MFA program in Writing and is at work on a collection of strange fairy tales, fables, and other short fiction. She is a writer-in-residence at the Louis Armstrong House and Archives. Her writing has recently been published in elimae.