Poems by Karen McKenna

Wedding Banned

I wanted it simple

No diamonds for me

And so the promise was shared

With a plain gold band

 

It sits in my purse now

Alone and cold in its box

I carry it to sell

Because the promise is defunct

And I am broken

 

But trying to

Try

 

Something new

 

While partly holding on

(to the nothingness that’s left)

Though I know it’s futile

 

I am cold and alone

Trying to become disengaged

 

 

Pride

Is it getting easier to forget me every day (you don’t call)?

 

You complain about the last time, when I said

‘you still taste like cigarettes.’

 

And we were drunk.

and there could be ‘ifs’

(‘you’d be perfect if’…)

 

but I want you

 

because you still make everyone else invisible when we’re talking

 

And you still tell me

about how you want me

for Sunday dinner

with your family

 

And I am still irrevocably drawn to you

And could drown in your eyes

And hold you forever

 

Even though

you still taste like cigarettes

 

 

 

a moment/passing time

something perfect
flashes in your face
radiates and touches me
in a way so pure
I clasp your face in my hands
kiss
on a street corner
as you help me find my way

I hate to leave you
and glance back
and you do the same

mirrored smiling waving
goodbye
fragile beautiful beginning

 

 

 

in between moments

anything can happen

like right now

in ‘just spring’

with my gorgeous racer

panting in the backseat

grinning wide

crying for what’s next

 

Sun and Moon could collide

Both in the sky

right now

Anything can happen

 

Dead fields dancing

Sun awakened

Soil shining

We’re all waiting

for what’s next

 

But right now

just Being

is all I have

And I don’t want for anything

In between moments

 

 

The Haunting

            I can’t talk to you

is all I said

            before I hung up

my heart threatened to

jump out of its confines

            and I wondered if I

 was vindicated,

            having asserted a definite

Leave Me Alone.

 

…but then Guilt crept in

with her friend SelfPity

And so I wallowingly wept

 

            And remembered

And wondered at how

I let you l i e

 

After a bout between

Now & Then

I washed tears away

and tried to regain

yesterday’s rainbow

when there was sunrise in my heart

 

and, even later,

I couldn’t hide my smile

Over Tea

            And fluid Time

 

 

Only Words

You are raw

and real

and naked to the world

 

in writing

(like shitting)

instinct

tears you apart

fulfills need

 

scary being exposed

strangely liberating too

unadulterated truth

minus tones soft or harsh

 

‘mere’ words

Move mountains

Strike peace accords

Run my heart through

 

Most importantly

words

Draw me closer to you

 

 

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