{"id":13298,"date":"2020-12-11T10:10:59","date_gmt":"2020-12-11T08:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=13298"},"modified":"2020-12-16T10:14:33","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T08:14:33","slug":"poems-by-john-grey-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=13298","title":{"rendered":"poems by John Grey"},"content":{"rendered":"

History Repeats<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I sat out on the sun deck
\nwatching history repeat itself.
\nMy next-door neighbor left for work.
\nHis kids headed off to the school bus stop.
\nThe mailman came by.
\nThe retired guy across the street
\nreported to his rose garden.
\nThe woman from one street over
\nstrutted past in her jogging outfit.
\nMrs. Sharpe was yanked down the sidewalk,
\nby her German shepherd.
\nMeanwhile, in the outside world,
\ntalks broke down,
\na politician was indicted,
\na sports hero was caught cheating,
\na suicide bomber blew up
\na Middle East marketplace.
\nI saw none of that
\nbut it felt as if I did.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Russian Bride<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Olga wasn’t the same
\nas in the photograph,
\nmuch older and plumper,
\nbut Tom loves her anyway.<\/p>\n

She came from Russia.
\nWhat choice did he have?
\nShe minds his house
\nwhile he tends to his cattle.<\/p>\n

Her English is minimal
\nbut she can cook
\nand not just beef stroganoff.
\nBesides, her full-bodied hugs<\/p>\n

are welcome after
\na hot and tiring day.
\nBut she is a mystery to all others.
\nThe accent, the shyness,<\/p>\n

they all play their part.
\nHe’s older than her by fifteen years
\nBut to the prospect of a better life,
\ncompanionship, that’s nothing.<\/p>\n

Some other lonely bachelors
\nconsidered sending for
\ntheir own “Ruskie bride”
\nbut they never did.<\/p>\n

Only Tom was brave enough
\nto take that step.
\nHe’d never admit he was desperate.
\nJust lonely. And Olga was the same.<\/p>\n

No one ever called them
\nthe perfect couple.
\nBut, as compromises go,
\nthey are matchless.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Immigrant<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is the city where you will be living for the next thirty years.
\nMeditative immigrant, take a good look around.
\nFold your arms if you must, admire the brown brickwork of the courts,
\nthe neo-classical state house on Smith Hill.
\nRegular breaths are fine. The history will come to you in time.
\nConfusion at local customs is acceptable.
\nJust don’t immediately dismiss them with a skeptical frown.
\nThe distance you’ve come is dwarfed by all the labor
\nthat went into making this place exactly as you see it.
\nMuch is remnants from a bygone industrial age.
\nBut there’s charms to be had. May you find them.
\nA brown river winds in and out of the concrete.
\nPigeons seek comfort in the parks, on statues.
\nAnd yes there are steep streets, cafes, and panhandlers.
\nAnd people like you from many other continents.
\nVisit different neighborhoods. It’s not what you
\nwere taught in school. Indeed, if you were ever taught anything.
\nMaybe you’ll get a good job. Or an even better wife.
\nInitially inspired by abstractions, you’ll settle on the reality.
\nYou are still the one your mother gave birth to.
\nBut in another country, that’s all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

History Repeats   I sat out on the sun deck watching history repeat itself. My next-door neighbor left for work. His kids headed off to the school bus stop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1450,77],"tags":[1451,1123,1393],"class_list":["post-13298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egophobia-65","category-english","tag-egophobia-65","tag-english","tag-john-grey"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DakB-3su","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13299,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13298\/revisions\/13299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}