Poetry by Jennifer Manske Fenske

Carl Wycoff CC




Set Free at Modern Cherry Motors


we dreamed of that Bronco 
was gonna buy it 
and climb up in those cracked seats
how would it feel 
it would feel like freedom you said 

high school a place where we 
have to show up 
afterwards we’ll finally be together 
together like in a trailer? 
nah an apartment you said

i got a job putting peaches in baskets
work is hot, lots of hours 
these dreams are in my head 
when you stop by 
i can’t remember the things you said

​



True Confessions at Bucket Stitch Automotive Interiors 
 
 
this one, right here broke my heart real bad
eight years, maybe nine 
gave him all a woman can give 
and still he busted me up – and good, too
 
 
stitching takes time
all mastery and patience
my man spread leather out on the bench
with scissors his grandaddy owned
metal and blade cut the leather
like some kind of soft ripping
no one could barely hear 
 
 
we had rows like you wouldn’t believe 
those hands of his
well he never raised them to me
i outweighed him easy
he’s no fool 


some things were sweet
we tended strawberries in spring 
a patch out behind the old house 
rabbits made short work 
we covered the rows 
i pulled, he cut the fabric
sharp metal slicing through
 
 
i remember 
the fruit and the man 
when we lifted the covers
they floated down 
like summer snow
for a moment 
it was all right, just him 
and me

​


​
​Jennifer Manske Fenske is the author of two novels published by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press. Her poems have appeared in Atlanta Review, Ice Floe Press and Emrys Journal. Her essays have been published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Arizona Republic, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and the Lutheran.

Jennifer is the recipient of a 2022 Artist Project Support Grant in poetry from the Metropolitan Arts Council (Greenville, S.C.). She lives in Simpsonville, S.C., with her husband, children's book author and illustrator Jonathan Fenske, and their three daughters.