John A. Nieves

Tender

Make you mark if you want to disembark, if you want
to press your sole to the shore. There is bread. There
is soup. Make your mark if you need to borrow
a specific sum, to make your collateral known, what
taking to promise the taking. Sign your name to rent
a roof to put over your bed, to get a key and a lock, to fill
out the address line. Sign your name to consent
to our internal probe. If there is something wrong, we will
know. If it is treatable, if it doesn’t grow, we can slow
the advance. Sign here for the advance on your book.
We are sure it will sell tons. For the necessary funds
to write another, mark here on this line: sign.

John A. Nieves (he) has poems forthcoming or recently published in journals such as: North American Review, Copper Nickel, 32 Poems, American Literary Review and Massachusetts Review. He won the Indiana Review Poetry Contest and his first book, Curio, won the Elixir Press Annual Poetry Award Judge’s Prize. He is associate professor of English at Salisbury University and an editor of The Shore Poetry. He received his M.A. from University of South Florida and his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri. www.johnanieves.com