John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in New World Writing, North Dakota Quarterly and Lost Pilots. Latest books, ”Between Two Fires”, “Covert” and  “Memory Outside The Head” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in California Quarterly, Birmingham Arts Journal, La Presa and Shot Glass Journal.

A POEM FIX

Problem:
	poem doesn’t work.

Cause – last line too obvious –
Solution – delete the line -  end on the penultimate.

Cause: 	trite subject matter.
Solution: shove the rose up some politician’s ass,
	    send your beloved horse to the glue factory.

Cause: passive language
Solution: forget the rose and the glue factory,
	    shove your favorite horse up the politician’s ass –
	
		and then delete the last line
		about the horse and the politician’s ass –

		end with the horse in your arms
		and the politician bending over.

ON OUR TREK THROUGH THE WOODS

It’s time to explore
the abandoned house.

Shutters are missing
and clapboard cracked.
Windows grin
shattered and grimy
like bad teeth.

Inside, the rooms
smell of rot.
The floors are covered 
in mice and pigeon dung.

The kitchen,
from sink to stove 
to refrigerator,
is a shrine to rust.
Webs dangle aimlessly
from the ceiling.

Up creaky stairs,
are bedrooms
which haven’t harbored dreams
in years.
Not a sheet or blanket in sight,
just one stained mattress,
with springs poking through.
And there’s a clear shape on the wall
where a crucifix once hung. 

People lived here
but little of their living remains.
And then they gave up
and just left.
There’s plenty giving up to be seen.
And a whole lot of leaving.

WEDDING DAY

What you have here
is the victory
of an ex-primate
over his most wanton needs,
his grubbiest desires,
clean-skinned,
sans claws,
waiting, not loping,
at the altar,
all of self in the heart,
nothing in the loins,
as she floats down the aisle, 
a vision in pure white,
no slavering,
no snorting,
no chest-pounding,
but silent and still,
until bride and groom
are united in marriage,
and I pop the ring
from my nose,
hand it to him
to place on her dainty finger.