jump the gun

In
her second collection, JUMP THE GUN, Jennie Malboeuf digs deep into the hidden
recesses of a life, exploring the stages and struggles of womanhood, the ways
in which memory shapes us, and the continual fight against the dark
undercurrents of grief and gun violence that shadow our daily lives in America.The speaker in these
poems wrestles with the everyday fears and realities we often try to ignore:
the complex expectations
placed on young girls and mothers alike, the illusion of childhood innocence,
and the very real
consequences of our environmental destruction.Split into two
sections—with poems that layer blood-soaked images alongside close-ups of the
body and domestic life that
bloom with intimacy—this collection deftly illustrates the beauty that can be
found in tragedy, the
fragility of the natural world, and the resilience of the human relationships
that fill it.To read JUMP THE GUN
is to witness yourself through the crosshairs. In Malboeuf’s words, “What hit you has become you. /
Pieces of the bullet embedded / in your skin. Even / that which you come from / will never be the
same. / But from violence comes / the tides, the seasons.”