Synkroniciti is thrilled to welcome back poet Jennifer Maloney from Rochester, New York, who won our “Wild” poetry contest earlier this year. “Broken” includes two of her poems, “Thee and Me” and “After the Tower,” which are also part of her new book, Evidence of Fire. “Thee and Me” questions the motivation behind a relationship which, on the surface, is filled with benevolence. “I will forgive you/ for saving me/ when you stop/ taping bandages over my mouth./ /That isn’t where I’m bleeding.” As the narrator regains her stability, still marked by the wildness and wariness engendered by her experience with addiction, the other woman becomes critical and controlling. The poem is part gratitude, part questioning and part warning to that other woman. “After the Tower” addresses the nature of promises. “Sometimes they crouch on my tongue, feeling for vibrations the way a trapdoor spider waits for prey. Sometimes they fall out of my mouth and I can’t stop them, like roses, or diamonds, or venomous toads.” We are reminded that promises are much easier to make than to keep and that they can be dangerous to everyone involved. Jennifer’s verse is dramatic and subtle by turns, rhythmically coiling and uncoiling language and emotion.
Read Jennifer’s dark and powerful poetry in our September 1st issue, “Broken,” available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Jennifer Maloney writes poetry, short stories, and plays in Rochester, NY. Find her work in Panoply Zine, Ghost City Review, Litro Magazine and several other journals and anthologies. Jennifer is the co-editor of Moving Images: Poetry Inspired by Film (Before Your Quiet Eyes Publishing, 2021) and is the author of Don’t Let God Know You are Singing, Stories and Poetry, forthcoming from the same fine press in Winter, 2023.
Jennifer is also a parent, a partner, and a very lucky friend, and she is grateful. For all of it. Every day.