Jane-in-the-Box

Rita Maria Martinez

ROCHESTER TRIPTYCH

I. OH MY LITTLE GIRL

At first it was curiosity, whim.
I wanted to know if she was a private
school girl with public school pizzazz,
fire and ice, you know the kind:
ankle-length skirts, panties optional.

Tenacious of life, eager plums,
these Lowood girls.

It was never a question of looks.
Not much to tempt a man—
except perhaps the curve of her neck,
vanilla pudding skin, pale and soft
as Millcote’s silk for sale.

She was no Céline Varens.
She was no Blanche Ingram.

II. JANE-IN-THE-BOX

A sequestered pet, rabbity
once liberty is granted.
Flexible as a Slinky,
cottony voice
the sound of knives
severing fresh bread.
She loved silly popsicles,
the smear of rainbow
lips and tongue.

Her pearl choker limp as a dead eel.
She pitied each strand, each pearl
plucked from its ivory bed,
beads for ditzy wind-up dolls,
Girls like Céline, Giacinta or Clara—
Comtesse, Signorina, Gräfina—
perfumed, powdered, pumiced.

She is V-necks, fishnets, lace-up
boots coating her calves like cake frosting.
After standing by the maple chestnut door
like an expectant dog, she stuffed
pillows beneath the eiderdown,
opened the window, slipped between the bars
like a thin slice of toast.

III. FAIRY TATTOO

When I find the fugitive nymph
I will bracelet her wrists,
garnish her fingers with marquisette,
brand my initials across her wings.
Though words will tumble
from her tongue, her brandied voice
will pour over me. She is wild thyme,
a bonfire, puffs of air spiraling
through the flute’s reed.
Yesterday, I thought I spotted her
in a blooming rosebush.

poetry
ISBN 1-59661-084-0
34 pages/$9

There is some kind of serious magic at work in this wonderful little book. Reading it, I feel as if I am waking up in another world where Gothic sensibility of Jane Eyre joins the surreal of contemporary American culture. The experience is nothing short of intoxicating. I can’t wait to read more of Rita Maria Martinez’s work.
—Nin Andrews

Rita Maria Martinez’s Jane-in-the-Box is a Rubik’s Cube™ of Janes. Each poem is a smartly annotated, hauntingly revisionist homage to Jane Eyre. Martinez’s astounding poems are literary, conversational, personal, fun, as she confidently transports her Janes from the Moors to Macy’s, from Thornfield Manor to the world of tattoos.
——Denise Duhamel

Rita Maria Martinez was born in Miami and lives in Fort Lauderdale with her husband. A graduate of Florida International University’s M.F.A. Creative Writing program, Martinez’s work has appeared in Gulf Stream, Ploughshares, Gargoyle, Diagram, MiPOesias, and Tigertail: A South Florida Poetry Anthology. Her writing is also featured in the eighth edition of Stephen Minot’s Three Genres: The Writing of Fiction/Literary Nonfiction, Poetry and Drama (Prentice Hall) and in Burnt Sugar, Caña Quemada: Contemporary Cuban Poetry in English and Spanish (Simon & Schuster). Martinez is an Academic Services Writing Tutor at Nova Southeastern University. Jane-in-the-Box is her first chapbook.

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