The Pleistocene Extinction

Snow glistened as white gem-dust
and the long-tooth tiger never saw it
coming, its eyes focused on the bison
and mastodons browsing on the plains.

The blue sky burned with a new Sol,
singed air bright green before exploding
its fire into a thousand cindering suns.

Feral eyes dilated to catch the shimmer
of diamonds in the sky and the flash

of buttercups in the mammoth’s mouth.






Click here to listen to John C. Mannone reading "The Pleistocene Extinction"






John C. Mannone is the poetry editor of Silver Blade and the assistant poetry editor of Abyss & Apex Magazine of Speculative Fiction. He has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize in Poetry and once for the Rhysling Poetry Award. He has published two hundred poems and pieces of short fiction. Recent poems appear or are forthcoming in Glass, Lucid Rhythms, Prime Mincer, Paper Crow, Mobius, Apollo’s Lyre, Star*Line, and Wordgathering. When not writing, he teaches college physics in east Tennessee and serves as a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador. For additional information, visit The Art of Poetry: http://jcmannone.wordpress.com.