J.K. Durick- Two Poems

J. K. Durick is a writing teacher at the Community College of Vermont and an online writing tutor. His recent poems have appeared in Decades Review, Poetryrepairs, Third Wednesday, and Up the River.

 

 

 

            Perilous

 

A peril      awaits

measures and maneuvers

in place

snuggles and snickers

complicates things

 

still we step off the curb

into oncoming traffic

expecting nothing

 

light up too near the gas pump

inhale deeply

 

take the turn too fast

without signaling

 

take another dose

without reading the label

 

take another drink

then decide to drive home

 

peril awaits us     we know    

but go against the flow

 

against their wishes

their best advice

 

go along just to see

how it will all end

 

peril waits for us

dresses the part

knows us well     waits

 

the proverbial banana peel

is as real

like a downed power line

a rickety bridge

 

the deal too good to miss

the stranger calling us over

to his dark and sinister car.

          A Curious Case

 

That family disappeared

Ain’t it weird   ain’t it weird

 

They disappeared in their fairlane

Known as big blue

 

The father, the mother, and the other two

That perfectly perfect pair some say

 

Their children all dressed in their cliché

Of chocolate cones and wishing bones

And hearty moans for dad’s bad jokes

 

And for older folks

They never feared

 

Ain’t it weird   ain’t it weird

That family disappeared

 

Disappeared down the street

No great feat for them

 

Round the bend

To a just supposed end

 

We never can mend or revive ‘em

Save ‘em  or survive ‘em

 

They’ve become a point in time

A trick, a fix, a crime

 

Waving forever from the corner

Never a wake, never a mourner

 

Never those marks of consolation

For they never reached their destination

 

But remain somewhere unseen

Perhaps somewhere in between

 

For somewhere short of their mark

They were eaten by the dark

 

Ain’t it weird   ain’t it weird.