August, 2006
In you, an east facing window
In you, the free condom I won’t use
In you, a man hard & shirtless in a garden
behind Spiritus Pizza in you
a slow tide crawls into salt marsh
In you, the day I panic the day I ask
How do you even contract it?
In you extended release capsules, cell counts, IV tubes
In you I am I am
low risk or high risk I can’t remember
In you years & years
In you my name you won’t remember
In you my opportunistic infection
In you disease as metaphor
In you the apple
In you the sleep of apples
John Bonanni’s (he/him/his) writing has appeared in Foglifter, Gulf Coast, North American Review, Florida Review, Cream City Review, Black Warrior Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Prairie Schooner, and his book reviews have regularly appeared in DIAGRAM, Rain Taxi, Tupelo Quarterly, and Kenyon Review. He serves as founding editor of the Cape Cod Review and his chapbook, a rotary phone that dings when you move it (Cape Cod Editions), was funded by an NEA grant before the NEA was gutted by neofascism. More at www.johnbonanni.com.