When the gators hide and the old man knows what he used to be
So in his cypress rocker he now waits
for hollow-heart monsters and stems of fate
With a sawed-off shotgun on his lap
He prays escape from the demons’ trap
Prays the silver shot is untarnished
Prays that his finger doesn’t shake
Nor will his own heart turn to ashes
Or his soul to splinter-break
John C. Mannone has work in Artemis Journal, Poetry South, Blue Fifth Review, New England Journal of Medicine, Peacock Journal, Gyroscope Review, Baltimore Review, Pedestal, Pirene’s Fountain, and others. He’s the 2019 Dwarf Stars Anthology editor, a Horror Writers Association Scholarship winner (2017), a Jean Ritchie Fellowship winner in Appalachian literature (2017) and the celebrity judge for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (2018). He has three poetry collections: Apocalypse (Alban Lake Publishing), which won 3rd place in the 2017 Elgin Book Award; Disabled Monsters (The Linnet’s Wings Press) was featured at the 2016 Southern Festival of Books; and Flux Lines forthcoming in 2019 has love-related poems using science metaphors. He’s been nominated for Pushcart, Rhysling, and Best of the Net awards. He edits poetry for Abyss & Apex, Silver Blade, and Liquid Imagination. He’s a retired professor of physics living between Knoxville and Chattanooga, TN. http://jcmannone.wordpress.com
