2026
POETRY OPEN
Second Prize
$100 Award
WATCHING YOU SLEEP
(A Haiku Cycle)
by Marc Manganaro
I.
Sometimes I envy
The realm beneath your breathing—
Deep, globed, then stirring.
II.
What mists, what rivers
Course through your currents of sleep,
Dissolving at dawn?
III.
Does the clock tick down
Or does some other kind of time
Ferry you through the night?
IV.
Does the snow descend
Silently in your dreaming,
I wonder in the dark.
V.
Do blue planets whirl
Or aged constellations fade
While I watch you sleep?
VI.
Does my naked touch
Warm your dream’s drowsing body
In the keen cool night?
VII.
Is it surprising
That in your deepest slumber
You turn away from me?
VIII.
Are we ever mirrored
In your sleep, our twinned selves
Bathed in a clear light?
IX.
When you are sleepless
And I lie mute, deep in dream,
Do such questions dawn?
______________________________
Marc Manganaro is a university administrator and author who has written books published by Princeton University Press and Yale University Press. Recent poems of his have been showcased in Poetry Pacific, Indelible, Modern Literature, Poetry Breakfast, Eunoia Review, and Empyrean Literary Magazine. He is a former recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, and some years ago served as Editor of The Carolina Quarterly. A native of Nebraska, he now calls New Orleans home.