ode to powder / jinx by Marlin M. Jenkins
- Shade Literary Arts
- Nov 15
- 1 min read
“After a series of events forced Jinx [born as Powder] and her sister apart … she was fundamentally and irrevocably changed, transforming her into the demented killer she is today.” - League of Legends wiki
powder / jinx
turned from the soft coarse and volatile
of powder keg and gun
to the thing sharp as a sharktooth
they called me when our love failed
they thought i was always
useless though
i was not
innocent and everything we built
couldn’t save anyone could kill
look what i did
i’ve done it only as often as i needed
i’ve lost and wanted
i couldn’t invent myself out of loneliness
i was stuck wondering what’s another bullet
whose arms in another chest
would welcome me haunted
every day i wake spastic
alone
hoping in a throne
to help us with pieces
out of me
of dark rooms with blown out
dim lights and the shapes of my fingers
of how i’ve tried to fly by wind
with anyone that touches me once
who could see me but then leaves
MARLIN M. JENKINS was born and raised in Detroit. The author of the poetry chapbook Capable Monsters (Bull City Press, 2020) and a graduate of University of Michigan's MFA program, their poems, stories, and essays have found lots of good homes online and in print. When they’re not writing or mentoring young people, they’re playing video games and watching cartoons. They currently live and teach in Minnesota.
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