APRIL CHILDREN by Kevin Keane

APRIL CHILDREN

by Kevin Keane

Unsuccessful Death

The crossbow above her fireplace
Was to me a precious symbol of her glowing in disguise
Her persistent beauty carved heavy images into my mind
She held me with cold finger tips
Wrenching from me all I could carry

The crossbow above her liquid fire
Gave way to treacherous thoughts of dying beside her
With little time for bleeding
And no time at all for questions
Sitting beside her burning heart
We produced a tiny play with our fingers used as puppets
Like two children we played at grottoes
And hid beneath our coats

With the crossbow above the fireplace
I pierced my lover’s heart
Not engorged with scarlet blood
But infested with poison worms
Bitter dry wine
And a loaf of French bread

April Children

Children dance and walk to school
As lonely dogs watch through windows

A baby stops to pick a deadly flower
And dies along the road

Children dance and play in pairs
The yellow sun, the black metal stairs

A baby stops to touch a deadly spider
And dies along the road

A mother runs in tears
Along the path to the school yard
She finds familiar gloves along the way

She stops to lift her daughter’s mitten
And dies along the road

First Christmas

To see the hummingbird on Christmas day
In this desert city so far away, from the very first Christmas
Where I began in black snow, black ice below
Half a short century ago

With little blood puddles marking the way
On the very first of Christmas days
Trains and elephants coming through tunnels
Like squeezing Christmas trees through funnels

I feel the little lungs moving
Innocent and intensely soothing
This could be anywhere, at the start or its ending
A final Christmas card I’m sending

About the Author:

Kevin Keane was born and grew up in New York City and currently resides in Arizona.  After writing for more than  forty years, Kevin only recently began submitting his work in 2018. Previously Kevin Keane has had three poems published since he began submitting his work in 2018 and this will be the second appearance of his work in Adelaide Literary Magazine. The writer is working on editing a compilation of his poems written over a forty year span for inclusion in a full book of poetry to be ready before the end of 2019. Mr. Keane has been influenced by Lorca, Bukowski and Don Van Vliet.