TEXT ME WHEN YOU’RE DONE, WORLD
Acceptable in thy sight
could mean anyone.
I am transforming. Watch
that dog on the corner
with the luscious coat of rust.
It could be me.
Hearing is going
but I can still smell
the rose lance-petals
of beloved fireweed.
Flames sweep over the land.
Terror comes every night.
I am on my feet. I am
walking every second of life.
Don’t forget to tie your shoes.
Put on your good hat.
This jacket has an orange X.
You never know who
will be watching.
Author’s Bio
JOHN MANN’s first book, Able, Baker, Charlie, won the 2011 National Poetry Review Book Prize and was published by the National Poetry Review Press in 2012. Finishing Line Press published his chapbook of poems, Wyoming, in 2008. His poems have appeared widely in magazines, including The Gettysburg Review, Massachusetts Review, Fence, and Vallum. He won a Poetry Fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council and was a resident fellow at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.