LOCAL RENT A COPS

by John McKernan

Like to pitch glass crack pipes
on a pile of rocks by the long dock

Will sniff then pour out half a fifth
of tequila or vodka   The good stuff

down the drain of a kitchen sink
then fill it back with their own urine

They know how to put it back right
in the shadow on the neon counter

Needles can be bent or dipped in
cat droppings   Right    Folks sneeze all

the time at the wrong time staring
at nine hundred dollars lying on

a blue plastic plate in lines of coke
One specialty is accidents

A crowbar or a long lead pipe
duct taped over thick insulating

styrofoam across the side of your
ribs    Like to be never forget

People get killed all the time   Right
Now if you listen close you won't

know what you're hearing   The sound
of someone’s ankle twisting or the sound

of  a nine millimeter going off in fire works
I call out Friends whenever I see them

THE BEGINNING OF ANOTHER WEEK

by John McKernan

Oxygen everywhere   Hiding out from the Carbon

Many people in church this morning wore disguises

The baby resembled the scar in his mother's stomach

The woman in the mechanized wheelchair held a
            pillow stuffed with purple paper & candy bars

Her tears were disguised as a waterfall

God was hiding in a candle   He was the bright unlit
flame

An army of foreign words hung suspended from
            the rafters after flinging themselves against
the sunlight on the stained glass window

One visitor tossed three bullets in the collection basket

A med student with a stethoscope shivered and left
early listening to the loud hymns and the size
            of those human hearts

YOU KILLED MY BLUE SKIPPER

by John McKernan

The one you said you would watch
While I visited my uncle at the hospital

The thin fish whose neon yellow side stripe
Curved to the initial  J     For me
Around its left eye

I trusted you
Because you used distilled water
Because you placed a statue
Of the Buddha in your aquarium

I should have remembered
The curlicues of marijuana in your hair
Your daughter’s story about the matches
Your mother’s silence at the grocery store
Your laughter when I used the word heroin

You killed my blue skipper and laughed

NEEDLES OF FREEZING AIR

by John McKernan

Slither
Right in

Covering the floor
With its metaphor of broken glass
Over oak across a black rug

Imitating the sounds
Of certain months and years
Of German and Russian history
Adding a strange new conclusion

To the Cinderella epic
I've just read to my daughter
Who asks    What did that?   
And I answer honestly   I don't know 
Just a fierce wind   Probably nothing   Nothing at all

WINTER PLANS

 by John McKernan

Throw the dirt back in the grave

Level the ground   Plant new grass

Kneel down   Knock your skull

On the granite twice   Wait for Spring

LIES ALL THE WAY TO MY GRAVE

by John McKernan

My brown eyes
Will be bright & wide open

My shadow
Will have the texture
Of a soft clean blanket

My hearse
Will be a new Cadillac
Smooth riding
Ignoring every pothole & nail

My granite slab
In the stonemason's shed
Will shine
In starlight & moonlight
Bearing the letters of my latest alias