Thursday, August 31, 2023: John Grey's "In Greenwich Village"

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John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Stand, Washington Square Review,  and Sheepshead Review. Latest books, Between Two Fires, Covert, and  Memory Outside The Head, are available through Amazon. Grey has work forthcoming in the McNeese Review, Santa Fe Literary Review, and California Quarterly.


In Greenwich Village


Away from grid smoke

and subway rumble,

I find chess players

in Washington Square,

bongo players drumming up a beat

I first heard many years ago,

a guy strumming a guitar

with cap at his feet,

and pigeons…

so many pigeons,

so much pigeon droppings.

I drink coffee

in a downstairs café,

nibble the glaze

off a stale donut,

look around at the clientele,

aging bohemians mostly,

paying for java

out of their social security checks.

Then I stroll the narrow streets,

am constantly reminded

how far the world has come

from this neighborhood’s heyday.

The last record store is boarded up.

The bookstore window

offers Marxist tracts dirt cheap.

What were once clubs

are now bars.

A scattering of tourists sit inside,

their disappointed faces

staring at a faded Dylan poster,

a Fugs album sleeve pinned to the wall.

Sadly, the past is locked and bolted.

It won’t let anyone back in.


© copyright 2023 John Grey

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