{"id":13963,"date":"2021-12-15T07:51:38","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T05:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=13963"},"modified":"2021-12-15T07:51:38","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T05:51:38","slug":"poems-by-john-grey-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=13963","title":{"rendered":"poems by John Grey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grace<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In this dimly-lit attic,<\/p>\n

you open a trunk,<\/p>\n

unleash the Korean War.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With just a few<\/p>\n

well-preserved objects,<\/p>\n

you can step out of<\/p>\n

your claustrophobic widowhood,<\/p>\n

reclaim the glorious life<\/p>\n

with the handsome man<\/p>\n

smiling at you<\/p>\n

from a Tokyo street.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There are letters.<\/p>\n

Some postcards.<\/p>\n

Two medals.<\/p>\n

Even a rusty bayonet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the battle rages all around<\/p>\n

these things.<\/p>\n

Shots are fired<\/p>\n

He\u2019s hit.<\/p>\n

And hit again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Too late,<\/p>\n

you close that lid down hard.<\/p>\n

Memory is a sure way<\/p>\n

of getting someone killed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The victory of the only way out<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Corpse dragged from the river,<\/p>\n

a young woman who worked checkout<\/p>\n

at the grocery store,<\/p>\n

who was knocked up and abandoned<\/p>\n

by some guy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Maybe, at her age,<\/p>\n

victories were just too hard to come by<\/p>\n

but a jump from a bridge<\/p>\n

would prove a triumph<\/p>\n

even those who looked down on her<\/p>\n

couldn\u2019t deny.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In fact, most ignored her<\/p>\n

but the current did not.<\/p>\n

In her moment of greatest glory,<\/p>\n

she got tangled around a rock,<\/p>\n

backslapped by the waters.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Her mother stood outside the yellow tape,<\/p>\n

disbelieving like some God-fearing confirmed atheist.<\/p>\n

Her daughter would be back by sundown.<\/p>\n

She had no doubt.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You have to admire the mother\u2019s faith.<\/p>\n

She was wrong on all accounts.<\/p>\n

No daughter of hers could do such a thing.<\/p>\n

But she did her best to identify the body<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To the woman three stools down at Ricky\u2019s tavern<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sorry Socrates<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve examined this life<\/p>\n

to the point<\/p>\n

where I wish I was someone else.<\/p>\n

For the novelty\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What can I say?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m weary of being<\/p>\n

this spelunker<\/p>\n

scouring the dark caves<\/p>\n

of myself,<\/p>\n

shining light on rage here,<\/p>\n

affection there,<\/p>\n

dragging my good nature<\/p>\n

to the surface,<\/p>\n

trying to bury selfishness<\/p>\n

where even I can\u2019t find it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWho am I?\u201d<\/p>\n

seems no more relevant than<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere did I last leave my car-keys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho are you?\u201d<\/p>\n

is of more interest.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s swap psyches, stranger.<\/p>\n

Or, better yet,<\/p>\n

body fluids.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sorry.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not what I meant.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Did anyone ever tell you<\/p>\n

you have beautiful eyes?<\/p>\n

If you heard it from yourself,<\/p>\n

that doesn\u2019t count.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How to initiate new members<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As an existing member,<\/p>\n

recommend someone.<\/p>\n

Make sure they understand<\/p>\n

that they must vow<\/p>\n

complete obedience<\/p>\n

to our rules and regulations.<\/p>\n

If comfortable<\/p>\n

with their desire and<\/p>\n

willingness to comply,<\/p>\n

a trial period will ensue.<\/p>\n

Should this prove successful,<\/p>\n

full initiation will follow.<\/p>\n

With commonality a goal,<\/p>\n

as well as adherence to the cause,<\/p>\n

they should not be surprised<\/p>\n

if this means going<\/p>\n

to war against some unnamed country<\/p>\n

or driving off for an outing together<\/p>\n

in the woods.<\/p>\n

I, myself, started with<\/p>\n

an ice-cream social<\/p>\n

followed up by an assassination.<\/p>\n

Truly joining is what matters.<\/p>\n

The rest will follow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An emergency somewhere<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sirens wailing,<\/p>\n

an ambulance rips a hole in afternoon silence.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The ceramic horse on the mantel had a stroke.<\/p>\n

The decanter on the kitchen table was assaulted.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You’re clutching your stomach.<\/p>\n

I press my hands to my head.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the ambulance passes by,<\/p>\n

the sound fades in the distance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There’s no emergency<\/p>\n

in what we have.<\/p>\n

Just contentment,<\/p>\n

as always.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

More living than there are dead<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In St. Anne’s Cemetery, leaves whisper.<\/p>\n

Willow wind nudges in on their conversation,<\/p>\n

Frog are supposed to speak, of course,<\/p>\n

but here, their croaks are mellow adjuncts<\/p>\n

to the low-key chatter around them,<\/p>\n

as are the songs of sparrows and finches,<\/p>\n

and the red squirrel and chipmunk chirp.<\/p>\n

I bring flowers to the grave of a loved one.<\/p>\n

Hard to believe that this is<\/p>\n

a difficult time for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grace   In this dimly-lit attic, you open a trunk, unleash the Korean War.<\/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":[1516,77],"tags":[1517,1123,1393],"class_list":["post-13963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egophobia-69","category-english","tag-egophobia-69-70","tag-english","tag-john-grey"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DakB-3Dd","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13963","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=13963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13964,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13963\/revisions\/13964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}