SurVision Magazine / John Amen

Backstory

(for SC)

– preppers in camouflage marked every door in Dyersville. Ma gathered sugar, life jackets,
Mason jars for the brew, some purple irises, a bagful of red dirt. We packed our keepsakes.
Heirlooms. Juju. Death wore a tie-dye t-shirt & camouflage pants. He shambled his way
to the promenade like an ancient alligator, busking beside the Ferris wheel. It was all symbolic
at that point, as the professor explained. The radio went silent. A chunk of the island broke off, drifting like an untethered canoe. This is when the recession began, this is how I fell in love with country music –

My Unfinished Opera

after Richard

I gas-painted my middle C & set the selfish note on fire. Key of the hero, key of the ageing
juggernaut, voices blazing under a full moon. I could stake my vision, but I couldn't snatch the
mood, paste the crescendo to the metronome. My opera demanded a silent finale. It was agreed:
my silent, unfinished opera. I loaded an aria, two serenades, three concertinos in the clean
cartridge. Like any great lover, I was born to spin that singing wheel. The world was at one, this
would be a masterpiece.

John Amen is the author of five collections of poetry, including Illusion of an Overwhelm,
a finalist for the 2018 Brockman-Campbell Award. His poems and prose have appeared recently, or are forthcoming, in American Literary Review, Colorado Review, Tupelo Quarterly, RHINO, and Prairie Schooner, among other publications. He founded and is the managing editor of Pedestal Magazine.

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An international online magazine that publishes Surrealist poetry in English. Issue Eight JOHN AMEN Backstory (for SC) – preppers in camouflage marked every door in Dyersville. Ma gathered sugar, life jackets, Mason jars for the brew, some purple irises, a bagful of red dirt. We packed our keepsakes. Heirlooms. Juju. Death wore a tie-dye t-shirt & camouflage pants. He shambled his way to the promenade like an ancient alligator, busking beside the Ferris wheel. It was all symbolic at that point, as the professor explained. The radio went silent. A chunk of the island broke off, drifting like an untethered canoe. This is when the recession began, this is how I fell in love with country music – My Unfinished Opera after Richard I gas-painted my middle C & set the selfish note on fire. Key of the hero, key of the ageing juggernaut, voices blazing under a full moon. I could stake my vision, but I couldn't snatch the mood, paste the crescendo to the metronome. My opera demanded a silent finale. It was agreed: my silent, unfinished opera. I loaded an aria, two serenades, three concertinos in the clean cartridge. Like any great lover, I was born to spin that singing wheel. The world was at one, this would be a masterpiece. John Amen is the author of five collections of poetry, including Illusion of an Overwhelm, a finalist for the 2018 Brockman-Campbell Award. His poems and prose have appeared recently, or are forthcoming, in American Literary Review, Colorado Review, Tupelo Quarterly, RHINO, and Prairie Schooner, among other publications. He founded and is the managing editor of Pedestal Magazine.
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