Comfort Zone

by John C. Mannone

I’m considered the best, but I never want to be too comfortable. I want the hairs on the back of my neck to stand straight out into dry air when it stirs. I want my Polaroid sunglasses to screen out any glare I might have but I never want to be too comfortable that they’ll hide the quiver in my eyes. I never want to be so comfortable that I’ll get lost in the static hiss of my thoughts and cannot hear the whisper of birds, or the soft shuffle of shoes on a carpet. I never want to be too comfortable that I only taste the wine, and not the sweat hiding under my shirt; my palms too smooth with confidence. I never want to be so comfortable that I cannot smell his fear but comfortable enough that he cannot smell mine before the silenced lead pierces his skull.

John C. Mannone has poems in Windhover, North Dakota Quarterly, Poetry South, Baltimore Review, and others. Winner/Nominee of numerous contests/awards, John edits poetry for Abyss & Apex and other journals. He’s a physics and chemistry professor at Alice lloyd College in Kentucky.

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