Thursday, March 16, 2023: John Grey's "On Tour in the Tyrol", and "On Course for Helsinki"

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                                                                              A fishing village on the Baltic coast Julius von Klever



John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Stand, Washington Square Review, and Floyd County Moonshine. Latest books, Covert, Memory Outside The Head, and Guest Of Myself are available through Amazon. Work is upcoming in the McNeese Review, Santa Fe Literary Review, and Open Ceilings.

 

On Tour in the Tyrol


The locals

wilkommen me

into their shops.

Shelves are stacked

with wooden figurines,

each with a broad

painted lächeln,

and many a ticking

kuckucksuhr,

their cuckoo birds

chirping on the hour.

I pick out a Schmuckstück,

report to the counter,

open my wallet.

All is English

from thereon.


© 2023 John Grey




On Course for Helsinki


From the deck 

I see a Baltic fishing village, 

a small dock, some boats, 

a row of wind-swept cottages, 

clothed in salty fog, 

shuttered against the incessant chill.


Much is blurred.

Details are in solitary.

Is that a woman

shivering her way down

broken cobblestones?


Are those men

on the pier

stretching nets

like they do the season?


It's a cruel day

when even the air is the enemy.

The sun is nothing but

a hollow ring in the sky.

 

© 2023 John Grey

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