Image by by HilLesha O’Nan, David’s wife while she was visiting West Virginia. -(he/him) David L O’Nan is a writer/founder of Fevers of the Mind Poetry & Art. He has several self-published books and curator of 5 Anthologies. His work can be found on www.feversofthemind.com .   You can see his work on Anti-Heroin Chic, Icefloe Press, Cajun Mutt Press, Royal Rose Mag, Dark Marrow, Ghost City Review, Nymphs Publishing, Spillwords, Punk Noir Mag and more.  And has been a Best of the Net Nominee in 2019. Interview Continued: Q7:Who of today’s writers do you admire the most and why? A: I look for writers that either trigger emotions or have an interesting rhythm in their work. There are so many between writers I have not spoken too and those I interact with on here quite a bit. Ilya Kaminsky influenced a couple of my poems last years. “By the Almond Tree” published by Anti-Heroin Chic being one of them, I always enjoy reading Peach Delphine, Ankh Spice, Robert Frede Kenter, Barney Ashton-Bullock, the sonnet series that you have, Catrice Greer, Jenny Mitchell, Tim Heerdink who is from nearby where I live, Shaindel Beers, December Lace, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, Charlotte Hamrick, Robin McNamara, Kushal Poddar, Megha Sood among so many more. What I’ve read by Jericho Brown is wonderful, Ada Limon, Ocean Vuong, Ron Whitehead, Anne Casey, Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood has some interesting material. Anything that brings good imagery, or anyone that can feel they can bring a positive change in writing I enjoy. I don’t read enough. I’m still digging and looking for the scrolls that will help shape me further. Any writing that bleeds empathy. In current music lyricists I enjoy Manchester Orchestra, The National, Valerie June, Nicole Atkins, Marissa Nadler, Angel Olsen, Big Thief/Adrienne Lenker, Amanda Shires, Jason Isbell, Jeff Tweedy/Wilco, Jay Farrar, Michael Kiwanuka, Built to Spill, Damien Jurado, Austin Lucas, Elliott Smith (I know he’s passed), First Aid Kit, The War on Drugs, Janis Ian, Kate Bush, Lana Del Rey (has moments), Leon Bridges, Lera Lynn, Okkervil River and more of course. Poems From his book “Lost Reflections”: DORIS Doris, like a mannequin in a 1920’s dress Swayed towards you The lipstick kiss of a demon in hysteria, Balancing new traps through a mind latched in by a plastic skull She is shade, shut, tragic The remedy of miracles Now, fraudulent She became an old soul to erase death As Radar Through the night cold Lit up by only the light of snow We can hear wolves howl Heartbeats pounding as radar We whispered to each other our last secrets That depression was born in trails of lost acorns Micro thoughts that you wanted to evolve into completion A formidable life GOLIATH’S PALMS Watch as the wind invents a new scream Alarms pulsating you to twitches Your body defeated you Your angels deserted you Your puddles of disgust that leaks off the roof Staining the beautiful murdered flowers under your shoes Your night walks vanish in Goliath’s palms TRAINING PHANTOMS Laying down in my dying sheets Amongst a crowd of maggots and fleas I dream of her and I on our wedding day In my coma dreams You take my blood, you slow my heart Tell me to breathe How do I start? Is this how you train your ghosts? FETTERED Formerly a clown fettered to a balloon Now a casket mime holding a finger to the mouth A hush over the deserted town When all exploded and went away in a city of joy Laughter buried under the rubble And a balloon floats to a flaming sky IN THE DISTANCE In waves that clash together in a staccato masterpiece We rummaged the ocean Searching for all her secrets She left us old bottles full of folk songs And the city’s skyline tattooed its image as Reflection in the waters Can you see the shark’s eyes in the distance? YOUR BIBLE A twist of brilliance A dulcet drip from a sink Listen to the silence Surrounds suffocation Claustrophobia, the nemesis A comely whisper flows by your ears You whip open your bible Your urgency Pray that God is with you While you see smoke & mirrors in a lassitude reflection LITTLE NERVES Explosions throughout my little nerves Blankets of skin wrap around my aching body And my December eyes Listen, watching the snow As It pops on electrical wires Holding gifts Shake out all the air Missing pieces The heart needs repaired To burn away As ugly as money REVELRY Through all the revelry lay fragile ghost-skinned Poison Ivy on a frostbite A dancing fool on a train track A zipper away from my skeleton A dream that became reality in the same room, a same nightmare From nightmares before Vaporates the idea of dream We are all riven loners THE OVERLOOK A dirty minded storm approaching And my mind is rambling I’ve got police car flashes burning my retina, And I feel my disease is spreading Head to the angry waters of the river in some lost park, An overlook For the drifters Pen in my hand I write my sins down to be forgiven STATUES Shiver out my concrete heart Crumbled statues that rest as cuts inside my glove In mad genius hideaways Sometimes the world stops The mirror breaks The reflection becomes your shadow Rearrange my jigsaw puzzle As it unravels, frayed and dull pieces missing A PORTAL Can you sketch me a portal to escape to I’m feeling blended in with the rest of the clouds All trying to stand out A loose cannon to dare the formation of a destroyer When all I want is to be calm, a breeze Through the shelter My site blind to all the conflagration DEATH BALLET When you’re approached By the shadow man And his death ballet His coffins display in a figure 8 A murderous grin In a pirouette of sin You better find an arm to hold you away from his clutch, His narcotic stare And his bones That constantly pivot and twist Trances in rapture WONDERLAND What are your true feelings? A cryptic wonderland we swim in Tears of saltwater cuts through the oceans And now free the sharks To feast on our death in our shells, we hide And hope the fog will mask our scent MAINE TIMBERS When born to the wild You are the comfort of sunlight And the hell of a meteor A vigilante disguise Bullets for eyes Cloudy ash tears Death of old cigarette breath But you are the running fawn A run into the Maine Timbers And they are just a sniper who stepped on a nail BRAVO Bravo, good job Romeo You smell like old fish and piss Well aren’t you a tiger? With your emotional bullshit I’m sure all the ladies had quivering hands Ready to twist your chord Did you feed them all of these feelings? I mean, feelings Do you have feelings? Never have had feelings? Come on sting me, talking bee, sting me! Only for the Shore I’m just another paranoid cloud Moving away From the puncturing of lightning bolts I want to feel the sand in the skin of my feet I want to curl my toenails over the beating heart of seashells I want to feel the glance of a surging wind The feeling it has in the front end of a storm I am just the greater ocean Not the beach that you adore Write only for the shore BATTLING THE ROSES A Wrinkling face A cheek to the window Electrical light now dimming Everything used to be brighter My head is a swimming ocean Full of endless drownings I rest on the pane, inside screaming No energy left I can only watch The surge of rain battling the roses DROUGHT FOR A CACTI Crossing sticks as they crackle under my feet That bridge seems like far away cacti in a desert, drought of water Keep reaching, The blades are only temporary As they live inside the chambers Water the plant of love Keep reminding yourself that you matter even when broken HOME & THE HEART I feel the bruises of those who hurt the heart for pleasure I feel the healing when the beauty of family erases my self-doubts Which, with my anxiety is often and to me annoying So, who knows why I constantly feel like overcoming when love is the home and the heart