Jen Karetnick
Birefringence
Mica is silver like lenticels,
bright second language
of bark peeling
from the eastern redbud.
Silver like a nor'easter,
tombing budding twigs.
Silver like a snow-burst
of bean sprouts over pho.
Like sunflower milk
roofing a fasting macchiato,
springing down the throat,
receptive shot of biaxial warmth.
Bio
Jen Karetnick is the author of seven poetry collections, including The Treasures That Prevail (Whitepoint Press, September 2016), finalist for the 2017 Poetry Society of Virginia Book Prize. The winner of the 2017 Hart Crane Memorial Poetry Contest, the 2016 Romeo Lemay Poetry Prize and the 2015 Anna Davidson Rosenberg Prize, she has had work nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and two "Best of the Net" awards. Her poems have appeared recently or are forthcoming in Crab Orchard Review, Cutthroat, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Missouri Review, Negative Capability, One, Painted Bride Quarterly, Prime Number Magazine, Spillway, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Verse Daily and Waxwing. She is co-founder/co-curator of the not-for-profit organization, SWWIM (Supporting Women Writers in Miami), and co-editor of SWWIM Every Day.