Hey Man …. Come Back Here
The child
Screamed to the man
Walking away
With sure steps
Faster each minute each hour each day each week
I take it all
Back
I don’t hate you
I won’t try
To kill you
If I ever get the chance
In a dark alley
Like tonight
To kill you twice
Like right now
John McKernan – who grew up in Omaha Nebraska – is now a retired comma herder / Phonics Coach after teaching 41 years at Marshall University. 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, The Journal, Antioch Review, Guernica, Field and many other magazines.
Copyright © 2015 by John McKernan