Best Poems Written by Jayne Hollander

Below are the all-time best Jayne Hollander poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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Details | Jayne Hollander Poem

Pineapple Mouth

Stark pineapple sap burns the tips of tongues
and tackies the soft pads of curious fingers.
Humidity that moistens the laughing brows
also drenches nervous palms.
                                             Everything is damp and hot and on fire and sweet.

Sticky fingers course my arm, eyes glide over 
my body~ half naked, glimmering with summer dew

do-
do you love me?
Say that love conquers all, 
and that you won’t clobber my pulsing flesh.
Say you will not love me.
 I only want respect.
For I have learned I may only choose
one of the two states.
Keep lying out of your sweet pineapple mouth
saying you do not love me.
and kiss me, trail your syrupy lips down
down my 
               skin~ lush and liquid
until that very body trickles.
And smile with your treacled mouth once the tap stops dripping sap
and say you do not love me.
And hold me in June-night’s heat.

Bare and sandy feet run wild across the summer beach
and unworthy mouths will dance the citrus dance tonight.
And the pineapple is almost run out.
and I am pulsing faster now
Quickly~
make sure you do not love me.

Copyright © Jayne Hollander | Year Posted 2025


Details | Jayne Hollander Poem

Pinky Promise

Tall, strong oak tree 
Tall, beautiful branches
I used to admire
Its fluttering leaves and supple wood
Only it is rotten on
The inside

Meet me at midnight, tonight
You bring the ropes,
I’ll bring the notes
I never break a pinky promise

We’re gonna flee this place
And leave ‘em speechless
At the sight of two corpses
Swinging from their tree.

The whispers in this town-
have always been too loud.
The things they say about 
our kind of love,
We can run away together.

I’ll see you when the light grows dim.
We’ll pen our words for 
the very last time.
And when the morning comes,
They’ll find us hanging
 from the tree.
You and me.
And we are free to love in heaven.
It is this rotten soil that is keeping us apart.

Copyright © Jayne Hollander | Year Posted 2025

Details | Jayne Hollander Poem

Butane Fingers

There is burnt wood in this house,
building up the walls, charcoal and brown
There are damp spots on the carpet,
struggling to dry as the time passes-
filling this home with a mildew scent.
Your hands- they smell of butane
as you paint over the stripped and slivered
walls- Candy-chick yellow. Why Yellow? Why him?
Your smile is all shiny,     with sweat.
Your eyes are pleading, mascara running 
There are no contracts between a mother and daughter
so you didn’t breach it.
"There were no colours in your face,
so I didn’t bleach it."
There is a crackle in your honesty,
a small break in the promise,
A dusty speech that’s thick
with dead things.
Dead things- I am one
Burnt and brittle-boned, lying on the charred carpet.
You bring flowers in to cover-up the odor,
fuel seeps into my veins,
Building up to a great  big  crunch
I want to step on all your flowers.
Rupture all your olive branches.
But I will conclude in a smile,
wiping crisp flesh from my body
leaving raw and welted skin- red and wanting,
and help you paint the walls
Candy-chick Yellow.

Copyright © Jayne Hollander | Year Posted 2026

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