Poems by John Grey

RING RING

Sad news from a friend:

a car crash,
one dead,
the other left not knowing
what to believe –

a great thrust of knives
deep into the heartland,
wheels screaming like children,
metal loading up on
with body parts and clothes –

the stretch of road
where it happened

is fanned by a gentle forest breeze,
watched over by sleeping trees –

one momentary lapse was all it took –

and lives became debris,
ditches fill with human waste –

so how do you steer safely
along pitch-black country roads
as time closes in on midnight
and the surface reeks of rain –

my good friend,
I’m too paralyzed to say.

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in New Plains Review, Big Muddy and Sanskrit with work upcoming in South Carolina Review, Gargoyle, Owen Wister Review and Louisiana Literature.