Kenneth Gurney
Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 07:26PM Kenneth P. Gurney lives in Albuquerque, NM, USA. His work appears mostly on the web as he spends SASE and reading fee dollars on flowers for his lover. To learn more about Kenneth, visit http://www.kpgurney.me/Poet/Welcome.html
Unique Little Fellow at 4th & Central
You are blue stone,
rose quartz, a river
running uphill.
Shadows try to grab
hold of you and fail,
fall behind like leaves
from branches
reaching for the sky.
You are secular homilies,
yesterday’s chewed gum,
a dab of paint in the background
on an artist’s canvas.
When you walk by
all phones ring
with no one on the other line.
When you absent yourself
all the wristwatch seconds
hold their breath
and stand still—atomic clocks
contemplate fusion.
Daughter of the Red Cliffs
You are cherry-red candy,
the blue of a Delft teacup,
the Albuquerque rain falling up.
The instant the Blue Woman’s daughter
was born, the earth spoke harshly:
everyone listened, some ran out of the hospital,
some crossed themselves and muttered prayers
to the blessed virgin.
Like any mother warning an intruder
to stay away from her child,
the Blue Woman screamed
with the final flexing of muscles
that pushed her daughter
into the attending midwife’s hands
and the earth backed up three paces,
spoke again, but softer, conceding,
then grumbled its discontent
in another part of the city.
Reader Comments (1)
What lovely and powerful poems. Nicely written. Jan Marquart