So How Are We Together?
So ivy’s scaling walls.
But what if your name was Ivy
and I was as stiff and solid
as a wall?
And dinner’s sizzling in the pan.
But if you were the night’s meal,
would I be the pan,
the hot stove,
or just the cold plate on the sideboard
waiting to accommodate your cooking.
And it’s the month of May
and if your name was May
I could be calendar pages,
or the days it takes to be you.
I could be a mayflower,
the ship,
the lonely fluttering plant
that’s dead by June.
But what if your name was June?
And look at that,
the wallpaper’s peeling.
Don’t ever be paper
and rely on glue.
Climb walls
don’t paste yourself atop them.
The healthy vine,
the ancient brick…
what a pair.
A pear?
I’m an old and willing pear tree.
But what if you were apricot?
~ John Grey
John Grey is an Australian born poet, US resident since late seventies. Works as financial systems analyst. Recently published in Slant, Briar Cliff Review and Albatross with work upcoming in Poetry East, Cape Rock and REAL.
Read more of John Grey’s poetry:
– As Night Approaches
– Poem for the Birds
– The Town Below
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