About Molly Tenenbaum
Molly Tenenbaum, poet, is the author of By a Thread (Van West & Co, 2000) and of the chapbooks Blue Willow, Old Voile, and Story. She plays old-time stringband music with two bands, The Queen City Bulldogs and Dram County, for dances and in parlors, and her old-time banjo CD is Instead of a Pony. She lives in Seattle, teaching music in the living room and English at North Seattle Community College.
Nominated by Jack Straw Productions
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Jack Straw Productions (JSP) is the Northwest's only non-profit multidisciplinary audio arts center. A community-based resource since 1962, we provide a production facility that is unlike any other in the region for local artists who work creatively with sound. Jack Straw focuses on annual artist residencies through our Artist Support Program, our Writers Program, and our Gallery Residency Program; art and technology education for all ages; arts heritage partnerships; and radio production. Our full-service recording studio is also available for a range of arts projects.
MY EYEBROWS
by Molly Tenenbaum
Once, a three-hundred-pound man with spitty fat lips
said "Never pluck them."
I've brushed them with red ink
and pressed them on paper.
I believe they're better in blue.
I've lipsticked and sealed them
on letters, a kiss. I need negatives
to de-mirror the prints. I'll toss them
on fabric, stitch bristling skirts,
and when I raise my hem...
Here, take my arch business card.
In the park, I've wired a controller, remote,
and zoomed them inches from your egg salad.
Hey, race your kite.
They've been tatting and grandmothers,
foxtails and muffins. Been mistletoe.
They've been an old car, throwing oil.
When they are sad, they are bumpkins
itching with straw, when happy,
rabbits in lettuce. Sometimes they scurry
belowbanks to hide from coyotes.
Now, their names are Ginger and Pickles,
and one laps up haddock,
while the other topples the biscuit tin.
In their shop they sell boomerangs and springboards.
In summer, they give free bouquets.
In winter, they close, but you can come in.
Swing the door to set off peal after peal of bells.