The Banyan Review: John Hicks, "Sound of Tenth and Olive" "Boy's life,"Featured Interval, May 2021

John Hicks

John Hicks is an emerging poet: has been published or accepted for publication by:  I-70 Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Blue Nib, Sheila-Na-Gig, and others.  He completed an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska – Omaha in 2016.  He writes in the thin air of northern New Mexico.

Sound of Tenth and Olive 

A man has robbed Pulaski Bank two days in a row.Left the same description.  Man selling Street News sirens hides. After closing time last night, a car alarm kept going off.  Urgent Care needs four spaces for ambulance parking as the nextdoor deli agonizes out of business.There is no work back home.  I call every night.Lisa next door likes cheap red wine.  It only loosens her volume.Where else do you practice saxophone, if not your doorway?The mail carrier won’t deliver my mother’s ashes. Some things are louder than others. 

Boy's Life

What owl was that. 
What spun this silk.
This tree’s scratch marks. Crushed grass;what happened.
Learn to see. To read  
the time sand-cupped 
a deer track, its edges drifting. 
Learn the ways of this world.
In time you will want another.
Innocence surrenders innocence.

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