local_library I Was Given

by John McKernan

Published in Issue No. 183 ~ August, 2012

A non-speaking role in

The Diary of Anne Frank

 

I earned

The role

Of thunder

 

A large 4’ x 4’ slice

Of sheet metal

Dull copper-red

Beer can thin

 

I kept cutting myself

Blood dripped

Everywhere back there

I needed gloves

To handle the sharp edges

Late for practice

Drunk most of the time

Missing my cues

I lost my part when I screamed

Louder than thunder

At a huge backstage sewer rat

account_box More About

John McKernan – who grew up in Omaha Nebraska – is now a retired comma herder 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.