otherwise known as a #swasticar (shame) Jen Karetnick
that people on X discuss how to scar (blame)
with acid and tools that shatter glass (maim)
who vow not to get their asses (aflame) Jen Karetnick
caught by the cameras in the windshield (aim)
and the owners of the vehicles, well-heeled (name)
or not, who may have purchased it long (timeframe)
before Musk twittered his tyrannical song (proclaim)
they play 3 Strikes, which first debuted (became)
in 1976, when Bob Barker booed (inflame) Jen Karetnick
every red X that came out of the bag (frame)
also cueing the audience not to lag (tame)
behind him with unanimous jeers (exclaim)
which has the lowest odds and no clear (claim)
strategy for a win—but a quick loss (quitclaim)
in this case could be labeled success (acclaim)
for while triumph might replace a lack of access (same)
only billionaires don’t have to pay their taxes (game)
After Ági Bori
A 2024 National Poetry Series finalist, Jen Karetnick is the author of 12 collections of poetry, including Inheritance with a High Error Rate (January 2024), winner of the 2022 Cider Press Review Book Award and semi-finalist for the PSV 2025 North American Book Awards. Forthcoming books include What Forges Us Steel: The Judge Judy Poems (Alternating Current Press, 2025) and Domiciliary (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2026). Her work has won the Sweet: Lit Poetry Prize, Tiferet Writing Contest for Poetry, Split Rock Review Chapbook Competition, Hart Crane Memorial Prize, and Anna Davidson Rosenberg Prize, among other honors, and received support from the Vermont Studio Center, Roundhouse Foundation, Wassaic Projects, Write On, Door County, Wildacres Retreat, Mother's Milk Artist Residency, Centrum, Artists in Residence in the Everglades, Miami-Dade Artist Access, and elsewhere. The co-founder and managing editor of SWWIM Every Day, she has recent or forthcoming work in Cimarron Review, NELLE, Pleiades, Plume, Seneca Review, Shenandoah, Sixth Finch, swamp pink, Verse Daily, and elsewhere. See jkaretnick.com.
