The Poems on the Train It came in a plain envelope. My first contributor’s copy. No message. Just the magazine, cheaply put together, one or two typos, but hey—it was my poetry in there, along with the work of three dozen others. I remember riding the green line, crushed between two heavyweights, but holding that …
Tag: John Grey
Jul 08
Welcome to my World on a Wednesday by John Grey
Welcome to my World on a Wednesday The TV repeats the same news as this morning – war, floods, famine – while kids improvise dance to beats on the sidewalk below, a show I’m in the cheap seats for though I didn’t buy tickets. My attention is up for grabs – the newsreader, dinner in …
Mar 15
How to Get By by John Grey
HOW TO GET BY ignore everything invent a life more amenable to your present situation lie back on your favorite couch maybe doze off dream something even better than your waking dreams let the unmade stories well inside you not lies not truths only the shimmer of possibility the room will still be the room …
Nov 29
FARMS R.I.P. by John Grey
FARMS R.I.P. drizzle drifts along the hilltops dogs growl fearlessly behind rusted gates in each rotting farmhouse are the seeds of its own dissolution the forest looks green and new but humanity is old in these parts a doleful face stares out of a cracked upstairs window not with accusation just the knowledge of what …
Jun 25
Man on the Spot by John Grey
Man on the Spot On a Florida beach, burrowed down in sand, I watch the shapes of swimmers bobbing in and out of waves, a pod of dolphins in the distance in sleek gray ballet, a manatee trolling in the shadows for some tasty weeds. There’s a guy on a board out beyond the flags …
Apr 09
Night Vision by John Grey
NIGHT VISION Outside the dream, a cigarette wedged between my teeth, a woman’s eyes alight on my window, America’s core, perhaps, or a plastic bird – a fusion of a lady of the night and a UFO? And below her neck, and high above the town, a body flares like a tongue of fire making …
