{"id":13562,"date":"2021-06-12T14:34:25","date_gmt":"2021-06-12T12:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=13562"},"modified":"2021-06-09T23:37:21","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T21:37:21","slug":"poems-by-john-grey-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=13562","title":{"rendered":"poems by John Grey"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kitchen Knives and I<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

been here forever<\/p>\n

still straining to hear that lost chord<\/p>\n

linger after the others leave<\/p>\n

living under the constant pressure<\/p>\n

the knives put me under<\/p>\n

munching enigmatically<\/p>\n

reluctant to leave my den<\/p>\n

my stretch is nowhere near<\/p>\n

at an end<\/p>\n

maybe they will come to their senses<\/p>\n

again for me<\/p>\n

remember the younger man\u00a0 leaning back and laughing<\/p>\n

me with my sneakers a tacky brown and white<\/p>\n

carving a message in sand<\/p>\n

revealed as the water recedes \u2013<\/p>\n

now it\u2019s twilight<\/p>\n

and deep cerulean<\/p>\n

strung up in the midst of winter<\/p>\n

mind empties itself<\/p>\n

all over the kitchen cabinet<\/p>\n

just inches from<\/p>\n

miracles\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a drawer not to be opened<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another Drive-by Shooting<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When the bullet hit,<\/p>\n

his body pitched forward<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and, before he flopped onto the sidewalk,<\/p>\n

his mind was remembering the cousin<\/p>\n

who was shot in the exact same spot,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

how, though up in the room<\/p>\n

he shared with his two brothers,<\/p>\n

he could tell from the loud report<\/p>\n

and the cries down below<\/p>\n

that someone had been taken out,<\/p>\n

most likely a guy that he knew.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lying in a heap,<\/p>\n

blood spilling from his chest,<\/p>\n

he could hear the ambulance, the cops,<\/p>\n

long before they came,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

because those were<\/p>\n

the sounds from the last time,<\/p>\n

They\u2019d come for him the once.<\/p>\n

Now they were coming again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This Feeling from Below<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As I go to bed,<\/p>\n

the basement breathes down my neck \u2013<\/p>\n

stale air –<\/p>\n

can\u2019t keep them it bay \u2013<\/p>\n

can\u2019t breathe the oxygen that will save me \u2013<\/p>\n

circled by filth \u2013 don\u2019t feel haunted as much as<\/p>\n

discarded \u2013<\/p>\n

so how do I survive?<\/p>\n

does the odor leave eventually?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m being poisoned \u2013<\/p>\n

where are my friends?<\/p>\n

why have they given up asking<\/p>\n

how things are with me?<\/p>\n

the night is curdled,<\/p>\n

rotting in my nostrils –<\/p>\n

no stars, no moon, no sky, not even an attic \u2013<\/p>\n

just these fumes<\/p>\n

I cannot exorcise \u2013<\/p>\n

just people too busy to even say<\/p>\n

ah, here he is again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kitchen Knives and I   been here forever still straining to hear that lost chord linger after the others leave living under the constant pressure<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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":[1494,77],"tags":[1495,1123,1393],"class_list":["post-13562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egophobia-67","category-english","tag-egophobia-67","tag-english","tag-john-grey"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DakB-3wK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13562","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13563,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13562\/revisions\/13563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}