Two Poems by John McKernan: The Importance of Humans to Death, Very Quick

Two Poems
by John McKernan

The Importance of Humans to Death

Some want the humans to all die
Cancer to the twentieth power

Save the ice cubes
Respect the volcanos
Mosquitos always loved birds better

Prehistoric Death Camps
In the shape of oceans
Rise in the archeologist's stethoscopes
With the beat of an extinct species of faith

Death was always at the blackboard
Slide rule in hand
Working at a problem
Involving semi-infinite numbers
Always trying to prove something

Very Quick

The hammer
The chisel

In the hands
Of the master
Stone mason

Particles of dust
Rapid slide sound of marble or granite
White flecks   Spin   Glint   Yellow
In two sharp angles of sunlight

There you are   Dude
Your first & last names
Your dates with a few words    Rhyming maybe
Your stone prayer rug
Magic Flagship to Eternity

John McKernan grew up in Omaha Nebraska and is now a retired comma herder. He lives – mostly – in West Virginia where he edits ABZ Press. His most recent book is a selected poems Resurrection of the Dust. He has published poems in The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, The New Yorker, Virginia Quarterly Review and many other magazines.

Copyright 2011, John McKernan. © This work is protected under the U.S. copyright laws. It may not be reproduced, reprinted, reused, or altered without the expressed written permission of the author.