Poems
by K.A. McGowan
Castling
Life is loss, she said,
taking my castle with her queen
and looking up from the chessboard.
She may have been thinking grandparents,
virginity, parents, the silent sonogram,
childhood friends and teaberry gum
from single-room candy stores now silent,
a fading belief in government or God.
She rarely revealed her moves.
The best I could hope for was a tie,
putting my king in a position
where he wasn’t in immediate danger
but any move by me meant the end.
God Again
Gray statue of the Virgin Mary
cradled in the roots of a cypress tree.
Who’s to say God forgot Gueydan.
Maybe Gong Gong did see a speck of heaven
in a junked ’65 Ford Mustang.
Barn with the picture of an AK-47
and Jesus is Lord we buy guns.
Boy wrenched from our communion class by nun
for asking who does God pray to.
Couldn’t tell by the road sign
if the church was for sale
or the cemetery or the land
or all three.
The old lady who drove south on the coast
between Oregon and California
gave hitchhikers a ride for one dollar.
The waning light flickered thru the redwoods
onto her autographed picture of Jesus.
If the Bible is right,
will I see you again?
BIO
K. A. McGowan lives 49 feet above sea level near Lafayette, LA. His first full-length poetry collection, Pangaea, was published in 2022 by Kelsay Books.