Jennifer

Jennifer the night court lawyer (US)

you play too many games
your climbing is a game
your skydiving with Nietzche
on your lips
a game

you ask too many low wall questions
not to learn, not of wondering
low walls for minor triumphs
grazes, minor falls

status labels proffered
like sacrificial chess pieces
your poet, your surgeon,
your Fulbright scholarship
a high high loop
you conquered in your lunch break
of five months

between your sons, your ex
the chatters who plague you for sex
the night court's burden on your soul
the games the thing for you

and yet

this girl, this woman
who runs and runs
shouts " don't touch the hair "
lunches her liberal credentials
charms, resists charming
despairs, plays
lies beautifully ( I expect )

rests only from the game
at every harelip moon
(rarer than a truth held in words)

the games you play
go round and round
on a carousel of morals
to a tune you borrowed