GIRL FROM A HOUSE PARTY

Jenna Lynn Good

she keeps matches in the back pocket of her 
distressed jeans, low-waisted, citrine belly 
ring, patches sewn with sky-blue thread.
she lights a fire right there just because she 
can. dawn of man in your caramel sedan,
you watch it burn the air, burn her breath.
she says to you, “it’s the inner light. you’re 
the light of the world.” little white sticks,
neatly packaged in faded gold—
she gets a rush when she tells you
“make a wish” on something irreplaceable.


Jenna Lynn Good is a senior at the University of Michigan, where she studies English and has won two Hopwood awards for her poetry. Her work has appeared in the New Croton Review and is forthcoming in Polaris.