The Innisfree Poetry Journal
www.innisfreepoetry.org

by John McKernan


 

I Want

The poem
Lying motionless

In the cage
Coated with rust
On the porch

The cage
Where the parrot died
After eating a page
Of Schopenhauer

The cage
I walked under
As a child
Listening to sounds
Heard nowhere else on earth

The bird couldn't fly anywhere
But the word
Guatemala circled in the air
While snow covered Omaha
And the child's mind
Learned to voyage to other countries


The Apple Tree Brags

Of its noon shadow
Sharp like a knife

Of its twilight shadow
Stretching to the horizon
See  Some of us are big

Of its midnight shadows
Flowing
In three directions
Moonlight   Starlight   Nowhere

I like to go out at dawn
Sit in the shade of an oak tree
Eat an apple or two
Drink some cold cider
Carve my initials in the bark




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