Randall Mann
Days
Because no
transaction
is repugnant,
I look
at the moon.
I look up
this moon,
called a fish moon.
It is perfect
if I don’t arrange for
metaphor. I do,
like an awkward
transition to talk.
My philosophy
hollow
as a list,
or formalist.
I swallow
the word
empathy,
then awe.
(Must be
angling
for sympathy.)
Metallic
as a phallic
age
to go.
Don’t go.
That hiss
in the ear?
Near-
miss;
dissonance.
Indrawn,
like a long con,
a marriage.
The yards,
medicated.
I take a nap:
shoegaze.
Chin up?
Days.
I myself am hell
if I know.
Go on, spoof
me with proof.
The least
I deserve.
This life apart
is clip-art.
Randall Mann’s fifth collection of poems, A Better Life, was published by Persea Books in April 2021. He lives in San Francisco.