jonathan andrew perez
The ealy Colonial Settlement Seeds: (phrase), immigrant labor fought epic battles, foreign “weeds” were assimilated out
Two-petalled, blue, yellow stamen;
Two opposite leaves
In the bombs of pollen, there rose, an undetonated
the Mephistopheles of Rosaceae
Inside the bombs that we impregnate, a thick rim of cigar smoke,
An interpretation: a pistol, a knife, an imagined battle. The Anxiety of Whiteness.
Good vs. Evil, or the Hibiscus. We bloom waiting that evening. Exotic weed set.
For a winner to rise, for the booming above the cemetery
To sound a final blow. The flower devil being overtaken, Grow Furtively,
of stem, ovary, and stamen; Bomb-man, made sure
He turns to a young boy, in awe, hands on hips,
Do not worry, lad, here, there will be no botanical resurrection. I will never christen a hum
Or pray for the end of days, an atypical lacking petals
flowery infernal charred- unfurled remnants winged. Until small armies of seeds
A leaflet like Demonology. The end of the Universe, trumpeted, naming
in medieval cone, bristle-like ear lobe, subaltern, the Human Race
Was grateful for what the mystics foretold in the un-basal globes: Fourth World.
The end was not so brutal. Good prevailed. Somewhere a mini-bomb man
Was born from the seeds of the immigration, thinking, mulling, if it’s worth a return.
***
Jonathan Andrew Pérez has published poetry in Collateral, Prelude, The River Heron Review, Blood Tree Literature,The Bookends Review, The Westchester Review, Crack the Spine Quarterly, Silver Needle Press, Projector Magazine, Cape Cod Poetry Review, Rise Up, BARNHOUSE, The Chicago Quarterly Review, Worcester Review, Hiram Poetry Review and Quiddity on NPR. Jonathan is in POETRY in January 2020. Jonathan won the 2019 Poetry Prize from Split Lip Magazine chosen by Chen Chen. Jonathan’s debut chapbook, “The Justice Elegies,” was released in March 2020 by Finishing Line Press. In the January 2020 issue of Poetry Magazine, you will find Perez’s poem “Bobolinks as a Flock of Signifiers.” He has a day job as a trial attorney and teaches poetry at Wesleyan University.