Against the Current - Nancy Manning

From my student’s hawk-like talons hangs

a dangling mouse that squirms to free

herself before he threatens to drop her

remains. Day after day, she begs him

to stop keeping an eye trained on her every

high school step. Stop blackening her eyes.

Stop dashing her dreams to the ground.

If only she could escape the stretch of his wingspan,

heal her wounds. If only there were music,

of minds floating together. Instead I fear

a future of final breaths, a Pollack canvass

of splattered blood and flesh from a devouring.

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Nancy Manning holds an MFA in Poetry from Southern Connecticut State University. Her work has appeared in an eclectic mix of publications, most recently Humans of the World, Noctua Review and Unmagnolia. Nancy's poetry collections are entitled Amethyst Garden, The Unspoken of Our Days, and the newly released What Glues Us Together; her novel Undertow of Silence won the TAG publishing award. She teaches English to high school students.