The poet attempts to explain themselves

Mary Rose Manspeaker

Please state your name.

I call myself nothing   Who does
their own naming        If I must:
Rose    the ripple         sun over pond
indecisive        my father’s voice
reaching          the soil beneath
a damaged lawn

How do you identify?

I’m not sure    I understand
the question     Am I not
supposed to tick          a box   Then
the ground itself          or         a violent wind
something everywhere            common

Where do you see yourself reflected in the world?

The days are full         anxious fidgets            the nights
fuller   The city lights
grip my sight               seeping
ache from bone           to follicle        could I
be this life       if only
The city           steeped                        in fitful hungers

Answer the question.

Reflection       may be the problem
How are you   you      ever other
than what you see       or         how you’re seen
It’s easy           break   
surface tension

Why do you insist on negation?

I’m trying        not the opposite          you’re asking
proof of a negative      I can only tell
you      the birds are chirping  today
begin               from what you know
wavy hair        sharp knee       
barking laughter          I’m sorry
I’m not

How do you make the world a better place?

My favorite tree          the weeping willow
near the center            of town            I remember
how much trouble       I caused
hiding in the shade      of its fronds

It still stands   my body          right there
continuing       to reach           the roughness
I calloused       my own hands
bark makes      its own song

Mary Rose Manspeaker was born and raised in West Virginia. They currently live in Brooklyn, where they work for independent publisher Three Rooms Press and are pursuing an MFA with The Writer's Foundry at St. Joseph's College. Their recent work appears in Juke Joint, Longleaf Review, Random Sample Review, and elsewhere.