Kevin McLellan
Elegy for Jack
My incubation took yearsas did your sun
and those of our ancestorsand in their honor
words need to be preciseso when I asked where?
you calmly said the certain wayto your own uncertain direction…
Jack Myers 1941-2009
Marcus
My nephew gave mea purple clover.
I pick him upand look through
his thick lensesand into his eyes.
Uncle Kevin, I’m blindin my left eye
but I can see youout of my right eye.
I say nothingas I remember
that he may losehis sight completely.
Uncle Kevinare you okay?
On being well
The wooden bucket:
*
the rotting rope: bitter
*
water: a secret in
*
the well: the well
*
your lungs: your breath
*
labored: last words
*
not spoken: the flooding
Kevin McLellan is the author of the chapbook Round Trip (Seven Kitchens, 2010), a collaborative series of poems with numerous women poets. He has recent or forthcoming poems in journals including: Barrow Street, Colorado Review, failbetter, Horse Less Review, Kenyon Review Online, Versal, Western Humanities Review, Witness and numerous others. Kevin lives in Cambridge MA with Frankie (a canary), and sometimes teaches poetry workshops at the University of Rhode Island in Providence.
My incubation took yearsas did your sun
and those of our ancestorsand in their honor
words need to be preciseso when I asked where?
you calmly said the certain wayto your own uncertain direction…
Jack Myers 1941-2009
Marcus
My nephew gave mea purple clover.
I pick him upand look through
his thick lensesand into his eyes.
Uncle Kevin, I’m blindin my left eye
but I can see youout of my right eye.
I say nothingas I remember
that he may losehis sight completely.
Uncle Kevinare you okay?
On being well
The wooden bucket:
*
the rotting rope: bitter
*
water: a secret in
*
the well: the well
*
your lungs: your breath
*
labored: last words
*
not spoken: the flooding
Kevin McLellan is the author of the chapbook Round Trip (Seven Kitchens, 2010), a collaborative series of poems with numerous women poets. He has recent or forthcoming poems in journals including: Barrow Street, Colorado Review, failbetter, Horse Less Review, Kenyon Review Online, Versal, Western Humanities Review, Witness and numerous others. Kevin lives in Cambridge MA with Frankie (a canary), and sometimes teaches poetry workshops at the University of Rhode Island in Providence.