Chocolate, Wine, and Poetry by John C. Mannone

A perfect blend,

a craving for sweet sex

and strong heart

that won’t break

as lines.

A swirl of intoxication

with plenty of phenylamine

—chemical of love—

dissolving in wine,

in poetry. 

Words like caramels

dipped in pleasure,

succulence unknown

until sipped, each 

drenched in kisses.

Each caress

of verse, a tease.

Blackberry and cherry

fruit-forward,

vanilla in French oak,

supple leather, with tobacco

and pepper, lace the palate.

Drink now. Only sweet

aftertaste of you

remains.

John C. Mannone has work forthcoming in Adanna Literary Journal, Anacua Literary Arts Journal, and Number One, and in Artemis, Poetry South, Human/Kind Journal, Red Coyote, Blue Fifth Review, New England Journal of Medicine, Baltimore Review, and others. He won a Jean Ritchie Fellowship in Appalachian literature (2017) and served as the celebrity judge for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (2018). He’s a retired professor of physics living between Knoxville and Chattanooga, TN. http://jcmannone.wordpress.com