I am cash & carry, I need green.
Teller, what’s my tell?
I click heels. Pop gum. Twirl curls.
I am in line, out-of-line, here
for lock-box & barrel.
Look at the note I slipped you,
over cold marble counter:
I’m not going to be nice.
Don’t hollow the heart of my stack,
insert some flexible dye pack.
I’m my own incendiary device:
already red palms, caught rosy, open.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 16, Issue 2.
Jennifer Jackson Berry lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Harpur Palate, Connotation Press, and Green Mountains Review, among others. She is the author of the chapbooks When I Was a Girl (Sundress Publications) and Nothing But Candy (Liquid Paper Press).
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