A non-speaking role in
The Diary of Anne Frank
I earned
The role
Of thunder
A large 4’ x 4’ slice
Of sheet metal
Dull copper-red
Beer can thin
I kept cutting myself
Blood dripped
Everywhere back there
I needed gloves
To handle the sharp edges
Late for practice
Drunk most of the time
Missing my cues
I lost my part when I screamed
Louder than thunder
At a huge backstage sewer rat
John McKernan – who grew up in Omaha Nebraska – is now a retired comma herder after teaching 41 years at Marshall University. He lives – mostly – in West Virginia where he edits ABZ Press. His most recent book is a selected poems Resurrection of the Dust. He has published poems in The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, The New Yorker, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Journal, Antioch Review, Guernica, Field and many other magazines.