Three More Poems by John Grey

THE KENNEL

Studio flat. Mattress, futon, floor. 
Could we have stayed there forever, content? 
No reply. It measured roughly the size of a kennel. 
She barked -- “Woof.” 
But she giggled when she said it.

Now we sleep in a proper bed, sprung coils, 
fitted sheets, a home with walls that favour silence
over the fights and lovemaking of next-door neighbours.

And the refrigerator fits more than beer and pizza slices.
We’ve enough stove to cook an entire meal. 
But sometimes, she stirs honey into tea, 
and the spoon’s clink is a memory of rain 
on that single-pane window. 

We don’t speak of that old apartment.
But sometimes, lying back and thinking of nothing,
I can hear the echo of her bark -- not grief, not joy –- 
just the sound of a life small enough for two.



THE BOY WHO FELL THROUGH THE ICE

What does it mean to stagger from the old pond, 
mouth smudged, blue eyes cratered, nostrils red?

The hometown has traded soul for shingles. 
A strip mall fronts our watery playground now.
The wire that fences it is a trellis for weeds.

And you who once were too late for saving,
now clutch soil in ever-defiant handfuls. 

Winter holds you still. 
You rise -- a revenant carved from frost 
and a memory of your flailing body
as seen from far above.

This is no repeat of our childhood. 
Then, you didn’t return. 
Now, you crawl past the despair.

I marvel at your instinct -- 
how you chase the moment beyond meaning 
to what breathes on the other side.
I want that too. To know death as merely vessel--
something we sail in when the ice thins.


THE GIANT

He was at the birthday party,
a shadow of immense proportions.
Streams trembled.
Balloons lost their moorings.
The cake sank.
Giggles stuck in many a craw.

He stood apart as the children 
shrieked and scattered.
In the swimming pool’s blue eye 
he was a reflection, 
not a swimmer.

He waited. 
Not for flat cake, 
not for games,
but for the slow growth of girls 
into something more dangerous. 

He would guard her, 
then become the thing 
she’d need guarding from.