11: Randall Mann

Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language.

Wi-Fi

by Randall Mann

…..after Karl Tierney

It’s Tuesday inside,
and I’m thick.
Half micro-plastic,
half giallo flick.

My work,
nominal
data in the lap,
a lake

or dance.
Make it clap.
Does that make
sense,

like a disingenuous
question?
Anecdotal,
beige

as the Fed book?
Not at all.
Not only
is it 6 months

past my birthday,
but I’m 48
and nice job
don’t look my age.

I try to list
what I have missed:
Hobnob,
and the knee-jerk

comparison
to a domestic
animal,
one-trick.

I tease
a trade,
a scrape.
I hum along

a nineties
song:
Don’t walk
away by Jade;

You’re my little
secret, Xscape.
A paper bill
(I overheard)

has been
canceled,
like a word,
or man.

Sold.
Such fun,
which one.
I’ve had my fill.

.

About the Author

A queer poet, critic, and medical writer, Randall Mann is the author of five poetry collections: Complaint in the Garden, Breakfast with Thom Gunn, Straight Razor, Proprietary, and A Better Life. He is also the author of a book of criticism, essays, and interviews, The Illusion of Intimacy: On Poetry. His writing has appeared in The Adroit Journal, Lit Hub, Kenyon Review, Paris Review, Poetry Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of the Kenyon Review Prize in Poetry and the J. Howard and Barbara M.J. Wood Prize from Poetry, and his books have been shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award, California Book Award, and Northern California Book Award. Mann lives in San Francisco.

Queer Poem a Day: Lineage Edition

• 1: Richie Hoffman
• 2: Derrick Austin
• 3: Maggie Millner
• 4: Rachel Mennies
• 5: Armen Davoudian
• 6: Tara Skurtu
• 7: K. Iver
• 8: Chen Chen
• 9: Alicia Mountain
• 10: Jameson Fitzpatrick
• 11: Randall Mann
• 12: Megan Fernandes
• 13: Amanda Gunn
• 14: Composer Robert Savage and John Ashbery

Queer Poem-a-Day is directed by poet and teacher Lisa Hiton and Dylan Zavagno, Adult Services Coordinator at the Deerfield Public Library. Music for this third year of our series is the AIDS Ward Scherzo by Robert Savage, performed by pianist Daniel Baer. Queer Poem-a-Day is supported by generous donations from the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library and the Deerfield Fine Arts Commission.