“I Thought” from PRISONER COWBOY by Edward Manzi

The book cover for Prisoner Cowboy by Edward Manzi. The background is slate gray. The title is in white stylized capitals, below which reads "Poems" in italics, then "Edward Manzi." Just shy of centered above is an abstracted image in red, black, white, blue, and various greyed out versions of the same. A large white shape with an underbelly of black and red, white thin columns whirling into a busy fountain of blue, ringed by red and blue and white spurts of color falling, a thin ribcage of red over black shadows at the bottom right, a black thin line streaking up from the left bottom corner, distant mountains and clouds, a humanoid figure and a small red balloon, streaks of grey, white and black all shadowed by greyish red. Busy, chaotic, delicate and swirling abstract.
Prisoner Cowboy by Edward Manzi

CW Books, 2023, 88 pp.

I thought there were answers, but all the children in the neighborhood are running around with saltshakers, shaking salt slowly on every slug they can find, lighting birthday candles in the sludge that remains, making an afternoon of it, then going home for milk and cookies and watching cartoons. I believed in bananas. When I got out of work a giant pizza was on my car, covering my windshield, covering my roof and the glass of the hatchback. I had to eat it; I had no choice. I shot a deer point blank with a shotgun, felt bad, stuffed the wound with flowers and never looked back; escape, escape, escape from the school and its termites that have crawled into the students’ noses, into their brains, and out through their toes. I subscribed to the notion; a red bicycle frozen upright on the iced over lake used as a hockey goal, marked up black and dented from slap shots, rusted chain off sprocket and kinked, adorned with icicles, catching the orange light of dusk. Sometimes, during a warm October day field mice crawl into half full wine bottles, get too drunk, die and are discovered a year later by a couple picking apples.

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Edward Manzi wears a gray beanie and smiles slightly. His brown hair and short beard closely frame his face. He stands in front of a wood slat screen.

Edward Manzi lives in Tahoe City, California. His poems have been published in DecomP, Cosmonaut Avenue, Bodega, Hobart, and a number of other publications. He holds an MFA from The University of New Hampshire. His debut full-length poetry collection, Prisoner Cowboy, is available from CW Books.

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