Colette Tennant

Colette Tennant is a professor of English and Humanities. She has two books of poetry: Commotion of Wings, published as an editor’s choice by Main Street Rag in 2010, and Eden and After, published by Tebot Bach in 2015. Her most recent book, Religion in The Handmaid’s Tale: a Brief Guide, was published in September, 2019 to coincide with Atwood’s publication of The Testaments. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and have been included in various journals, including Prairie Schooner, Rattle, Southern Poetry Review and Ireland Poetry Review.

Greek Myth Speed Dating

1.) Are you a cat or a dog person – more Sphinx or Cerberus?

2.) Have you ever identified as nobody?

3.) How would you hold off suitors for years without them noticing?

4.) Does your favorite break up technique include a deserted island?

5.) Do you buy the story that any married woman could be the most beautiful?

6.) Have you ever accidentally turned a woman into a tree?

7.) Giant wooden horse – good or bad first date gift?

8.) Have you ever slept with a goddess then cried in the morning?

9.) Have you ever found yourself staring at a woman with curly hair?

10.) Do you think Helen wanted it?

My Great Grandfather was a Furniture Maker and an Undertaker

Did his breath mix with the varnish?

Were his cedar chests doppelgangers for his coffins?

Did the creak of his hinges sound like keep, keep, keep?

Did he recycle tabletops as coffin lids?

Did his chest on chests swallow keepsakes down into darkness?

Were buyers wary of his chaise longue foreshadowing?

Did he know the word credenza meant to check for poison?

Did the keys that fit his cabinets fit his coffins too?

Did he notice how furniture and tools blur

body part names – lamp neck, chair back, rocker arm,

table leg, hand saw, slip joint and needle nose pliers,

and the head, neck, face, throat, eye, and cheek of a hammer?

Did the spindles on his chairs look like knuckles?

Did he specialize in ball and claw foot?

Did he ebonize his wood until it was shiny as loss?

Were his beds worrisome if they were too comfortable?