Selected Work

          by John Grey










          CHANGE FOR THE BETTER


          The wind is string quartet.
          Haydn, I believe.
          Gone are the full-blood symphonies
          and worse, the throats of January opera,
          so deep, so resonant, the bedroom shook
          on its soft rock foundations.
          And leaves appreciate, stand to applaud.
          Likewise the woodchuck,
          an avid music lover if there's
          a tuneful breeze to hum.

          Gale is at the window, sipping coffee
          honeyed over with light.
          Can't wait to be outside
          now there's a melody to her liking.
          And trees, grass, are green for good reason.
          Best seats in the house.


          THIS FAMILY TREE BUSINESS


          I don't sit at the head of the table
          though I'm the oldest man left standing.

          I've three big sisters. . .
          let one of them gravitate
          to the matriarchal chair.

          I'll slice the baked brown beast
          if that's required, and I'll pass
          vegetable dishes with perfect
          quarterback handoffs

          but no way I do anything
          to suggest that I'm head
          of this family.

          There's kids running wild.
          They'll grow up and get married,
          have babies of their own.

          Soon enough the family tree
          will be an oak with too many
          branches to count

          and I don't wish to be
          the weary roots that hold that up.

          Give me a lower limb,
          the one where the poets roost.

          Thankfully, my eldest sister
          plumps down in the controlling chair
          like she was born to it.

          She'll sink down in the soil eventually
          and newer roots will bury her.
          I'll break off in the wind.
          I'll be the wind thereafter.


          John Grey's latest book is "What Else Is There" from Main Street Rag. He has been published recently in Agni, Worcester Review, South Carolina Review and The Pedestal. He lives in Rhode Island. (April 2008)


          If frames-incompatible, Click Lunarosity