Antinous' Ring
Three Poems
by John Grey
THE BODY IN THE WOODS
It’s a bare, emaciated woodland,
and a body is giving its all,
to the surrounds,
to the crawling insects,
anything to still have purpose
long after its throat was cut.
But the forest floor
is also a graveyard,
of fallen leaves,
of unwitting victims.
And it’s an altar of sacrifice,
of mulching,
as the fear on the corpse’s face
is a feast for all kinds
of crawling things,
as its minerals are sapped
by the earth below.
Life here is sustained
by natural cycles
and, occasionally,
by those more unnatural.
Winter gives way to spring.
Some lives succumb
to the intrusion
of human monsters.
A BAT PERSON
You ask me how
I feel about bats.
Truly,
around bats,
I'm as comfortable
as a sailor in a hammock,
a young girl on a swing.
I'm inspired by bats
if you must know.
The last story I wrote
featured a bat as protagonist.
And I have to show you
my "Ode To Chiroptera."
It's fifteen verses long.
If I could
I'd live in a belfry
or a cave in New Mexico.
I'd fly with the flock,
feast on the fruit
of the dark slurping night.
If you only knew
the trouble I've gone to
to mutate this cloak
into black flapping wings,
these teeth
into something long
and sharp and feral.
Oh, what's that?
You said "cats" not "bats."
No, to be honest,
I'm not much of a cat person.
But my bats are.
WHAT’S OUT THERE
A giant paw
in the soft snow
suddenly changes
what I believe is possible
and what was heretofore
just beauty
now could mean me harm
and even be watching
from the rocks
or the pine stands
as I hike the trails
or retreat
to the sanctuary
of my cabin
with its two small rooms,
dim lights,
lockless doors and windows -
if only
I hadn’t come upon that print –
then I would never have imagined
what made it -
then I wouldn’t be trembling –
then I’d be safe from everything
except, of course, from surprise.
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Shift, River And South and Flights. Latest books, “Bittersweet”, “Subject Matters” and “Between Two Fires” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Rush, Writer’s Block and Trampoline.