John Grey | 3 Works

Benefit Street

Benefit Street in sunset.
Already my walk is full
of brick and leaves and cobblestones.
Gale is with me.
And the sky is a copious mirror
tilting in the tree-brushed wind.

The college is higher up the hill,
home to the serious,
the most likely to succeed.
Down here, in Poe’s footsteps,
prosperity is measured
in the skittering of squirrels,
the shedding of oaks,
and how loose and yet connected
two hands are held.

On either side rise
houses, some mansions,
a boulevard of architectural styles.
Sure, the lampposts are phony.
But they look the part.

I’m in my most favored state –
a response to my surrounds.
My imagination prowls.
My eyesight whets its knife.
Lucky for me,
light’s rotating through soft amber

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Darkness

When I pass the man
deprived of sight in both eyes,
I cannot imagine
the totality of his darkness.

To assuage my own darkness,
I grab the change in my pocket,
look to drop it one of his two receptacles –
the cup or the cap.

The cup it is.
For there, the coins rattle.

In the cap, they would make no sound.
The cap too is blind.

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There is no Cabin Fever Here

The blizzard whipped up snowflakes
into heavy drifts.
And yet no one’s complaining.
Sun’s out,
the garden’s gone crystal,
a lovely glistening counterpoint
to Summer’s blooms.

A snow-plow,
like a grown-up children’s toy
with tiny head, bright eyes
and broad gray mouth,
nudges and burrows,
wheezes and puffs.

More amiable clouds streak the sky.
Every tree has its own icicle tale to tell.
Squirrels and rabbits dart across the surface.
Only deer move at the speed
the cold has chosen for them.

It’s winter, it’s January,
the only possible forecast
is snow or more snow,
lower and lower temperatures.
But the weather-man
fails to mention the great indoors.

In the parlor,
warm takes human shape.
The power’s on
but we light candles anyway.
There’s twenty four hour TV
but we prefer the programming
of hug and kiss.

Outside, the plow finally makes a breakthrough.
We’re free to leave our house
But, better than that, we’re free to stay put.

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