The June Editor's Pick Poet is John Grey

Please feel free to email John at: JGrey10233@aol.com

BECAUSE

Because each night the moon grows bolder,
and dusk deflates the day, the light,
its detail smothered by the dark,
and because of the cry that escapes my mouth,
that trembles walls, shakes glass to cracking point,
and because I am as restless as dogs in heat,
and my palms, my knuckles, sprout thick black hair,
and the moon swells, bursts like a pus-filled boil,
its skin is bathed in yellow,
while mine is flushed with blood.

PROM NIGHT

Cold spring night,
dead boy rises,
slinks up to his date's door,
prom night tuxedo
frayed at the elbows,
pants torn at the knee,
withered rose
pinned to lapel.
not here to haunt,
not here to strike fear
into hearts,
merely to revisit
the night in question,
the rush not to be late.
the shoddy brakes
on his old man's ear.
the slick rain-washed streets.
the corner taken too fast,
the violent crash into that light pole.
something's coming
down the stairs to greet him...
the crinkly rot
of a corpse in a shredded dress...
prom night...
an adolescent ritual.
not be missed...
off they'll go
in that crumpled Cadillac.
foot to the floor,
though there is no floor...
then it's stumble through
the gym doors,
hiss and moan
al the disco ball lights,
as music stops.
dancers freeze in their tracks...
but the party's not over
until the fat teacher screams.

A HANGMAN RETIRES

No longer needed, rumor has it
Old Ambrose carved himself a bed
out of that ancient oak trunk
or maybe it was a couch or a chair...
and folks add that after so many years
of slipping that rope over the throats
of murderers, highwaymen, pickpockets,
loose women and even a witch or two,
he deserved a quiet retirement
among the fruits of his labor.
Someone said it was made into a chest of drawers,
others a solid kitchen table. All I know is that
whichever of your every day pieces of furniture
is most likely to shriek and wail, moan and howl,
that is what it became.

John Grey is an Australian born poet. Recently published in International Poetry Review, Sanskrit and the science fiction anthology, “Futuredaze” with work upcoming in Clackamas Literary Review, New Orphic Review and Nerve Cowboy.