"Bad Neighborhood" and "First Thing in the Morning"
Bad Neighborhood
a big black savage dog
is chained to the axle
of a rusty Ford
in the overgrown front lawn
of a dilapidated house
on a dead end street
if it ever gets free,
it will grab you
by the leg,
the arms,
and make you
live there
First Thing in the Morning
I’m like a photograph
waiting to expose.
I rub my eyes,
yawn my way
into a recognizable form.
Amazing,
I wake shapeless, thoughtless,
amorphous, a blur,
and yet you know me
already.

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Penumbra, Poetry Salzburg Review and Hollins Critic. Latest books, Leaves On Pages and Memory Outside The Head are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Lana Turner and Held.