POSTCARD TO LORRAINE

Swelter of loud children in back streets, 

elevated highway roaring near, 

rotting knots of dumpster smell, 

subway rumble, gray smoke hiss, 

the sediment of memory like dirt in my palm,

remembering sicknesses and car-wrecks,

rats’ nests and broken glass and the

sour sweep of neon - 

nothing heals - and then, with no restraint, 

the tuneless blasting saxophone - 

a neighborhood I wouldn’t wish on anybody 

and yet - wish you were here.

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Stand, Santa Fe Literary Review, and Sheepshead Review. Latest books, ”Between Two Fires,” “Covert,” and  “Memory Outside The Head” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in the McNeese Review, La Presa, and California Quarterly.