Tony Mancus

the future emojis are the same as the new emojis are the same as your life

when the skate park closed

no one was there to notice

the sound of the garbage

truck was something

everyone could sense

incessant backing up

through yards and stoops

sentimentalizing everything

in its rubbery way

cover the wits and the windows

with your dreams it said

like they’re a certain thread count

sheet and not simple disposables

the doctor always told me this

to feel like the rabbit on fire

running through the forest

spreading light with its fur

but there’s a fine line between

grinding and sex           one that usually

involves knowledge and another body

or at least some kind of physical

conditioning I still don’t see

the emotional response I want

among all of the stickers of this

scantron world

(no one continues

to notice anyone

noticing anything)

we’re busy with these bubbles

filling in our future and the choices

suggest ideal occupations for each of us

if you fill in the right pattern

you can be anything (including

but not limited to:

garbage, the person

backing a truck up, the memory

of a skate park, a digital

representation of e-

motion, the laundry

stiff and crying as it freezes

on a rope) between here

and tomorrow.

* * *

Tony Mancus is the author of a handful of chapbooks, most recently City Country (Seattle Review). With Meg Ronan, he co-curates the In Your Ear reading series in Washington D.C. He works as an instructional designer and lives with his wife Shannon and three yappy cats.