THE BOAT LEAVES MILLVILLE PROMPTLY IN YOUR DREAMS
The company abandoned the mill in sixty one.
What kind of boat did you say this was?
Houses, repatriation hospital, hamburger joint…
raise the anchor now.
The neighborhood is sun-drenched, the best that it can be,
so why aren't the main-sail and the jib flowing.
Such a slow and solitary Main Street.
Who needs solid earth anyhow?
A farmer's in the field. Some kids are off to school.
Can't you get this damn sloop moving.
An ancient Packard rusts in tall weeds.
If that's not the start of long voyage out
then I don't know what is.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
THE MORNING PAPER
tells me
there are at least
a dozen interpretations
maybe twenty or so
simultaneous meanings
it declares
two opposite opinions
can still be right
four opposite opinions
righter still
it makes this solemn promise
to me and my first coffee
that everything begins and ends
with the facts
of course
it adds
not all facts are fact
* John Grey is based in Rhode Island and, along with previous appearances in IS&T, he has been published recently in Agni, Worcester Review, South Carolina Review and The Pedestal, with work upcoming in Poetry East and REAL.
