LIFE WITH THE OBITS

My father morosely turns the newspapers
straight to the obituaries.
That could be the guy he went to school with
or the girl who worked at the Five and Ten
so many years ago.

And there he is
picking at the names of the dead
like they’re scabs
and beneath, red and raw,
are the wounds of his own life.

But then he cheers up
because he’s found himself a wake to go to.
He can catch up with some friends
who haven’t died yet.

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Midnight Mind, Novus and Calliope. Latest books, “Bittersweet”, “Subject Matters” and “Between Two Fires” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Levitate, White Wall Review and Willow Review.

Crucify the Adjectives

Words are empty.
Nothing more than a weighty abstraction
bouldered down through human history.
In essence, nothing more than mere constructions—
sculpted gutturals insanitizing the masses into herd poisoned cliques and countries.
The words are heavy and heady.

One day they will bring forth the end
of the so-called sapient humans

 

Heath Brougher is the editor in chief of Concrete Mist Press. He is a multiple nominee for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Award as well as recipient of Taj Mahal Review’s 2018 Poet of the Year Award. His most recent publications are “Beware the Bourgeois Doomsday Fantasy” (Sandy Press, 2024) and “Change Your Mind” (Alien Buddha Press, 2019).

One More Secret

Perplexed,
I continue
to take this
drifting dream.
Who wouldn’t?

I am with you.
I would not have
it any other way.
Still, it is not
real. I know.

Perplexed,
we hold hands
for the first
time. We kiss
for the first time.

It feels strange in
the morning when
I see you.
I keep one
more secret
to myself.