John McKernan
The Melonoma Looked Red-Orange
On your body
Not a high-noon sunburn
Lying
In its pool
Of blue blood
The doctor dove right in
With his "switch blade" & "six shooter"
I like a good street fight
Those were his actual words
Toward evening the landscape began
To breathe again as we watched
That blind nag ride out of town
Past your death in the drainage ditch
Wearing a fresh carpet of black & blue feathers
Missing Photograph Is Found
My father has just walked up the stairs
to the front porch
My mother has her left arm around his waist
My father has lifted a huge bag of tools
from the trunk of the old Plymouth
My mother has just reached out to touch his
right arm
It is in black & white The colors would
have been blues & tans & yellows
My father is standing right next to my mother
A new swing set in the background
My mother must be holding his hand behind
her back Pressing it to her spine
My father begins to climb the first steps
to the house on Cass Street
My mother is wearing an apron over
a sun dress & her hand seems covered with
flour or powdered sugar as she reaches
out to touch his shoulder
Several family album photos are black
I have always seen those black photographs
as our parents tight in love safely out
of the range of any ear at midnight
John McKernan is a retired Comma Rancher. He lives in West Virginia where he edits ABZ Press. His most recent book is Resurrection of the Dust. contact
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13.3 (Spring 2009) | The 2River View | Authors • Poems • PDF • Archives • 2River |