Sample Poems by Tanque Jones

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Mother’s Left Breast

She relishes a bare sashay through the house.
I disregard the fuzzy triangle & dimples on her ass,
fixate on the feather-shaped scar above her heart,
long to stroke each sepia spike.

“Oh, I got that when
Mama threw a brush at me,”
she matter-of-facts,
denies the bristles embedded in her flesh.

I wait until she dozes & take my time,
caress the quill that blossoms from her areola,
lovely mutilation,
breathe on the barbs, watch them tremble.

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Whose Eyes

I hate my common brown,
everyone marvels over
brother’s gray.

Judging tongues
dare not ask Mother.

Mr. McBride's blessed with gray eyes.

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Ode to the Firefly

Decades of summer not a glimpse of you.
Firefly? No, I call you lightning bug.
Amazed, can’t capture you
in a jar with lid and string.

Embers against midnight
entice a mate.
Teach me your spell,
to lure with light.

Trapped together in this house
we won’t find what we seek.
Sparks dim to flickers on wood planks.
Shall we both die here?

I give my heel to spiders, ants,
the palm to bloodsucking bastards
that bite places I scratch all day.
To kill you--murder.

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From Dust

A girl will fashion a doll from anything,
gather twigs for bones
and bind joint to joint with naked vines,
search groves of pecans until she recognizes
her child’s smile in a perfect oval shell,
swaddle him with a swatch
from a cherished dress,
the last of her food
she presses to his lips.