A Poem by John McKernan

One Note on a Guitar

Can yank my skull
To outer space

Two notes on a violin
Can pour lava
Back inside the volcano

Three harp notes
Can bring
A friend back
From the grave

Sometimes I'll be listening
To a sheet of Heaven
When a friend will tell me
About Susan's return
To the Valley of Crack

You should hear me scream
Bang pots & kettles
In the kitchen
Beat my drums
With a crowbar
Set my guitar on fire

John McKernan grew up in Omaha Nebraska and recently retired from herding commas after teaching for many years at Marshall University.  He lives in Florida and West Virginia.  His most recent books i s a selected poems Resurrection of the Dust.  His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Paris Review, Field, and elsewhere.