Jacob Saenz
Two Bachelor poems
Jacob Saenz
Poet and editor Jacob Saenz was born in Chicago and raised in Cicero, Illinois. He earned a BA in creative writing from Columbia College in Chicago. His first collection of poetry, Throwing the Crown (Copper Canyon Press, 2018), was awarded the 2018 American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize.
Saenz has been an editor at Columbia Poetry Review and an associate editor at RHINO. He works as an acquisitions assistant at the Columbia College library and has read his poetry at a number of Chicago venues. A CantoMundo fellow, he has also been the recipient of a Letras Latinas Residency Fellowship and a Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship.
Two Bachelor Poems
b a c h e l o r
Another year, another hair on my ear lobe.
What’s the point of plucking? Hair returns like a roach
after nuclear fallout. On my head, they race
to the grey finish like the tortoise & hare
but this ain’t no fable. Rabbit wins & bares
its white furry ass like a ribbon. I reach
for my clippers & trim my acre,
refusing to use any lotion or herb
to conceal the grey. I’d rather char
my skull w/coal than use hair care
products as lethal as bleach.
b a c h e l o r
Biting into the apple’s core,
I see the seeds, small, bare
& brown. I swallow the last bite, belch
& toss out the rest like a robe
falling to the floor. I do not care
for seeds or kids & somewhere mother is crying. I reach
for the phone to call her. I brace
for her sigh when I tell her I’m single again, a crab
picking & clawing my way across a beach
full of trinkets & treats. I hear
her sigh—a howl ringing in my head like an echo.