Horns
Friday rush hour is always dangerous for the unsuspecting // like gazelles grazing on Serengeti grass // oblivious to a crouching cheetah ready to lunge and claw and clamp the innocent by the throat // The mademoiselle in a Dearborn-gray Ford does everything right // even with an extra measure of caution that heavy traffic always demands // She doesn’t see the impatient buff-colored box truck, spotted // with oil and road soot // spring out from a swath of sedentary cars // no time for defensive horns // to defray the interception of her hind quarter // panel, bruising her side, ripping the metal car’s // carcass and scattering collision-debris all over the highway // Dust settling after disturbed by heavy hooves // of tires trucking wildly // Wounded, she falls on her side, pulls // off the road to assess the damage // and to check through the daze in her eyes if she is still alive; hyenas stretching their necks as they drive off // the big cat.
John C. Mannone
John C. Mannone has poems in Anthology of Appalachian Writers XV [Barbara Kingsolver] and XVI [Ann Pancake], Red Branch Review, Windhover, North Dakota Quarterly, Poetry South, Baltimore Review, and others. He was awarded a Jean Ritchie Fellowship (2017) in Appalachian literature and served as the celebrity judge for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (2018). His full-length collections are Disabled Monsters (Linnet’s Wings Press, 2015), Flux Lines: The Intersection of Science, Love, and Poetry (Linnet’s Wings Press, 2022), Song of the Mountains(Middle Creek Publishing, 2023, nominated for the Weatherford Award), and Sacred Flute (Iris Press, 2024). He edits poetry for Abyss & Apex and other journals. He’s a professor of physics teaching mathematics and creative writing in an East Tennessee high school.
Books
- Disabled Monsters
- Flux Lines: The Intersection of Science, Love, and Poetry
- Sacred Flute
- Song of the Mountains
More: http://jcmannone.wordpress.com
Carnage and the fight for survival in the jungle of the freeway. Yes! Thanks John, nicely done.