John C. Mannone

WATCHING ANNIE SIGN

Listen to the audio version.

I hear her heart
metronome her movements
         of perfect silence
oblivious to the noise I hear.
She’s rejoicing inside their world
         of smiles. A dark blue
and purple T-shirt, she wears
stenciled with yellow letters
         on her back: Sign Slowly
Her reddish brown hair lit under
lamp glow, her face full of compassion,
         eyes hazel green, focused.
It seems she doesn’t see me,
but she does. And she hears
         the flutter in my chest.

John C. Mannone has poetry in Blue Fifth Review, New England Journal of Medicine, Peacock Journal, Gyroscope Review, Pedestal, and Pirene's Fountain. He’s been awarded two Weymouth writer-in-residences and has three poetry collections: Apocalypse (Alban Lake Publishing), nominated for the 2017 Elgin Book Award; Disabled Monsters (The Linnet’s Wings Press); Flux Lines (Celtic Cat Publishing). He edits poetry for Abyss & Apex and other venues. He’s a physicist near Knoxville, TN. Visit John C. Mannone: The Art of Poetry.