Two Poems by Dane Karnick

Phantom

 

I’m in a séance with morning fog

guiding my walk along sandstone

wrapped by vapor that conceals miles

of sediment while ponderosa

assemble and disintegrate

as if forming in a crystal ball

revealing secrets like scrub oak

that briefly confirms itself

with each step I look deeper

summoning a magpie to

hop into view but it dissolves

into boredom expecting

my respect even though

distractions are plenty

as insects this dullness

does not hide its contours

billowing around my head like

a message from the deceased

asking me to forgive the mist.

 

 

Corpus Delicti

 

The season of night is ebony’s snow

dusting rooftops from a charcoal sky

for the pallbearer of dusk to

parade our streets while shadows stalk

their rabbit holes past eyes like mine

scanning the obituary

of daylight as survivors wait

to be seized by the fangs

of slumber persistent as

Nosferatu in a grip of

lethargy terminating

vital signs block by block

embalming our minds with a hush

so rigor mortis can play dead

fooling those who stay awake

conducting their autopsy

on the hours that departed.

 

Dane Karnick grew up by the Colorado “Rockies” and lives near Seattle.  His poetry recently appeared in Hawaii Pacific Review, Pastiche, madswirl and is forthcoming in Alba and Pacifica Review.  Visit him at Dane Karnick's Poetry.