J.H. Johns

THE PEOPLE - THE UNNAMED EX-CON

He said
all the right things
which,
however,
would be hard to verify;

schools attended;
languages spoken;
degrees earned—

all "impressive"
but
hard to substantiate;

a gifted life;
a life of things achieved,
all of which happened
in places far away;

names of countries;
towns;
cities;
schools—

everything that meshed
so flawlessly—

actually,
it was so perfect
that it was imperfect—

too perfect
to be real...


Paul Churchill Mann's YouTube reading of "The People - The Unnamed Ex-Con"


J.H. confesses: This piece is one of dozens that chronicle "The People-" that I have encountered at the Cleveland Clinic Holiday Inn. Almost all of the encounters- at their core -are- content-wise- episodic. This one was not. It was out-of-synch with why this person should be at the hotel."

J.H. Johns “grew up and came of age” while living in East Tennessee and Middle Georgia. Specifically, the two places “responsible” for the writer that he has become are Knoxville, TN and Milledgeville, GA. Since then, he has moved on to Chicago for a brief stint and New York City for a significantly longer stay. Currently, he is “holed up” in a small town where, when he is not writing, he tends to his “nature preserve” and his “back forty.” His goal is to surround his house with all sorts of vegetation so as to obscure it from the gaze of the “locals.”  He is assisted in this task by his coonhound buddy and companion, Roma. J. H. Johns was a Pushcart nominee in 2018.