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"The Summer I Got Diagnosed With Hypertension" & "Lake Verna, Colorado…" by Jenkin Benson



The Summer I Got Diagnosed With Hypertension


you will forfeit salt

put 2300mg into an envelope

the one with your rent check

bike 4.33 miles to the

property manager’s compound

blitheproof glass it looks like sodium

azide’s chemical formula

the road will still be armored

with january’s roadsalt

it will not be a gratifying ride

your intercostals and asshole

will ache they will grudgingly

sweat people who think wearing

a helmet is gay will walk on the

left side of the road not to spite

you they get aura-cleansing asmr

from being wrong that’s

their prescription you must remember

to hydrate every sip of diet coke

equates to your credit score

dropping by a half point you can

purchase a rubber proboscis at

the front desk our receptionist

can spear it right under your ungainly

cloddered skull’s occiput it will drip

cucumber water directly onto

your brainstem there is a 27%

chance you will perceive hallucinations

of marathon runners shaking their

heads at you instructing their buff

heatstroked goldendoodles to avoid

acting like you can you please remove

the blood pressure cuff you can just

condemn it into the biological waste

bin i find your left bicep to be

categorically abhorrent




Lake Verna, Colorado or The Sublime Misery of Hiking


i hardwalk uplong now

8 milers out

all back gorgeous

grotesque noon sprains


this pine treachery of yours

inconvenient like boulders

slippage into rollage

fucked jointhucking down


my toenails mauve

my patellas brave

but outyondermatched

78 degree bottled water i love


lake full of antlers

and kindless scat

yes unsentenceable beauty

but i am a sapient scab




Jenkin Benson is a 2nd year PhD student at the University of Notre Dame. He principally studies the creative interchange between Welsh and Irish modernists. You can find his poetry in New Note Poetry, The /temz/ Review, KEITH LLC, Deep Wild Journal, UC Irvine’s faultline, and Squawk Back.

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