JENNIFER GIVHAN

The Affair

I drop the first pistachio on the floor 
by mistake 
but by the third & fourth 
it’s clear I’m distracted or have sieves 
for hands  
I already knew this about myself  
the first indiscretion  
so intentional it seared into the pulpy meat 
at the center, but still, a mistake 
& by the time  
it ended, the floor was scattered  
with shells 
as with the steakhouse you took me to in Texas 
where you ate a steak the size 
of an elephant’s heart 
so bloody it was blue 
& even this bag of pistachios 
unshelled, down the throat without effort 
until a clotting at windpipe 
even this  
reminds me of you. 

Jennifer Givhan is a poet, novelist, and transformational coach from the Southwestern desert and the recipient of poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and PEN/Rosenthal Emerging Voices. She holds a Master’s degree from California State University Fullerton and a Master’s in Fine Arts from Warren Wilson College. She is the author of four full-length poetry collections, most recently Rosa’s Einstein (University of Arizona Press), and the novels Trinity Sight and Jubilee (Blackstone Publishing), all of which were finalists for the Arizona-New Mexico Book Awards. Her newest poetry collection Belly to the Brutal (Wesleyan University Press) and novel River Woman River Demon (Blackstone Publishing) are forthcoming this fall. Her poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction have appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, POETRY, TriQuarterly, The Boston Review, The Rumpus, Salon, and many others. She’s received the Southwest Book Award, New Ohio Review’s Poetry Prize, Phoebe Journal’s Greg Grummer Poetry Prize, the Pinch Journal Poetry Prize, and Cutthroat’s Joy Harjo Poetry Prize. Jenn would love to hear from you at jennifergivhan.com and you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for inspiration, writing prompts, and transformational advice.