Jenny Keto

Jenny Keto is a poet, a psychiatric nurse, a former actress, a proud Austinite, and an origami enthusiast. She's counting on a wish after 1,000 cranes folded, and 1,000 poems written. Much of her poetry grapples with the space between the heart and the intractable mind and has appeared in Cathexis Northwest Press, Déraciné Magazine, Francis House, The Conglomerate, wards, Broken City, and Visitant.

“And If She Dies Before I Wake” and “My Cat Always Hears My Writer’s Block”

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my Soul to keep,
and if I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my Soul to take.
Mother changed the last words
of my nightly prayer in attempt
to stave me from the futility of
how we all end—in an attempt
to save me from her.