Stranger into Friend

by Ivan Jenson

I am apologizing
ahead of time for hurting you
and I am thanking you
before you offer your kind
and selfless acts
and I am suggesting
we change the subject
even though
we have not argued yet
and I am
getting ahead of myself
by stopping you in your tracks
to see if you recognize
the fact
we have never met
but really should
in the very near future
like how about
now

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Ivan Jenson’s Absolut Jenson painting was featured in Art News, Art in America, and Interview magazine. His art has sold at Christie’s, New York. His poems have appeared in Word Riot, Zygote in my Coffee, Camroc Press Review, Haggard and Halo, Poetry Super Highway, Mad Swirl, Underground Voices Magazine, Blazevox, and many other magazines, online and in print. Jenson is also a Contributing Editor for Commonline magazine. Ivan Jenson’s debut novel Dead Artist is available as a paperback and on Amazon Kindle and Nook. His new novel, a psychological thriller entitled Seeing Soriah is now available as an eBook or in Paperback on Amazon. Ivan Jenson’s debut book of poems, “Media Child and Other Poems” will soon be published by Hen House Press, New York