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This poem is from Travis Nichols' manuscript See Me Improving. It's the kind of manuscript that has almost everything it needs to join the library of award-winning poetry books that Copper Canyon has been publishing for nearly forty years. Almost everything, save the one essential ingredient, which of course is—your financial support.


Testimonial

All my life I've felt destined
not for the greatness of my heroes
but the goodness of their followers.
I knew, even when I found a piece
of tooth in my Sausage McMuffin,
I would surmount the poverty
and dullness of my youth.
I knew neither my poverty nor my youth
would be significant enough
to attract attention,
only simple enough
to graft onto the great biographies.
Even when I felt uncommon and angry enough
to steal balloons from the drug store
and spit red paintballs through a peashooter
at people making out in the park I knew
I was no Billy the Kid.
Even now as I stare at the snow-covered sidewalk,
a mildly pleasant stupor trickles over my skull,
because I know my tracks
will lead straight and true to the library,
just as they trail behind me.
And I know this evening I will settle
down to watch The Searchers and I will see
a faint shimmer shoot from my forehead
to the window where it will rest a moment,
flare up in someone’s passing headlights,
then fade back into simple reflection.


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