Danielle Jones  holds an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Massachusetts Boston, and is assistant director of the Writers House. Her poems have appeared in Best New Poets 2014, Beloit Poetry Journal, Southern Poetry Review, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a 2014 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, and a 2015 St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award.

Sample Poem:

Man Eats 15 lbs. of Bicycle
from The Leader-Post, 1978

Stomach of steel: Monsieur Mangetout
ate the bicycle broken into one inch bits,
washing it down with mineral oil, and lots
of water. He didn’t eat the “inedible” parts,
the pedals, the crank gear, or the handle bar.
He savors the chain, because it has a taste.
In between he snacked on razor blades, two
plates, a light bulb, and, for fun, bent coins
with his teeth. He’s eaten shopping carts, nails,
a chandelier: might be the only man to end up
with a coffin inside him. When I was young
I had a condition—I was too thin. He had his first
piece of glass at sixteen, in a pool. Standing alone
in the shallow end, the cool evening air rippling
his arms and chest. He cried out when his foot
found the sharp edge. But in his hand
it felt like rain. He swallowed smooth.