JOHN GREY

It's my pleasure to introduce John Grey here on SHINE! John is a widely published Australian poet who writes from his home in America. Today, we bring you his experiential poems, "Just About Everything," "Suburban Guy," and "Rain at Last." Thank you, John, for sharing your work!

Just About Everything

Off the highway,
there’s this two story emporium
that’s about two city blocks in size
though it’s located
in the middle of nowhere.

As two hundred billboards
in all direction will tell you –
it’s the Just About Everything store.

While it does sell a lot
of stuff, you can’t get yourself
a guitar or a poetry book
or good Italian takeout –
it’s not that kind of
just about everything.

But it has a candy aisle,
and an ice-cream counter,
and you can buy a Swiss Army knife
or a framed copy
of the Ten Commandments.

In honor of the 21st century,
they even sell thumb drives.

And plenty of souvenirs of course.
But those souvenirs don’t reflect
what’s good about the surrounding area
which is flat and totally featureless.

They’re mementoes
of the Just About Everything store.

You can get yourself
a logo-embossed thimble
to stick on your mantel
and you’ll be reminded
every day for the rest of your life
that, once upon a time, you visited
the Just About Everything Store.

You’ll even know what you purchased there –
a thimble as you live and breathe.

Suburban Guy

I cut the grass
as if somehow it matters
that the lawn be mowed
as short and neat
as a crewcut.

And, where the paint peels
on every window sill,
I repair the damage
with a dose of white.

There’s reason behind me
wiping dust from the mantel
and television screen
or replacing the faucet
of a leaking tap.

Though I don’t
think about it much,
I’m a civilized being.
If I’m to look the part
I must also act the part.

And I’m educated
therefore I pick up
after myself.
I feel goodwill
toward others
so I rake leaves in Fall.

I’m a good citizen
who takes out the trash,
keeps the garden trim,
power-washes the outside
of the house once a year.

But I don’t eschew poetry
for the splendors of golf.
No, no, no.
That’s a being too far.

Rain at Last

It’s recycled sea and lake water.

But it feels so new
as it softly pummels my head,
runs down my nose, my cheeks.

And I’ve been waiting
for just such a downpour,
so that the earth, the forest,
can make love again.

After so much dry,
it touches me like a new woman.

But I have a woman.
She’s beside me.

Recycled from home and hearth, maybe.
But here, in the rain,
she feels so new.

John Grey is an Australian poet and US resident, who has poems recently published in New World Writing, North Dakota Quarterly, and Lost Pilots and work forthcoming from California Quarterly, Birmingham Arts Journal, La Presa and Shot Glass Journal. Grey's latest books, Between Two Fires, Covert, and Memory Outside The Head are available through Amazon.

---