by John Grey
I go to the bookshelf,
pull down The Complete Works Of Shakespeare,
open it to some random page—
King Lear—
no, that’s not what I want.
Where is All’s Well That Ends Well
when you need it?
Or Timon Of Athens for that matter.
I put it back.
I wasn’t in the mood for Elizabethan playwrights
anyhow.
Why can’t I just stay in bed,
wrap an arm around her
as she sleeps?
Why, when my restlessness
is momentarily cured,
must I get so impatient
with the subsequent calmness?
Why don’t I take some time
to process the love, the tenderness,
the trust?
I dip into my one-volume Oscar Wilde.
“Only the shallow know themselves,” says he.
Thanks, Oscar.
You give me the freedom to do what I do.
They Could Have Been Mermaids
by Barbara Martin
John Grey is an Australian poet and US resident, who has been recently published in New World Writing, California Quarterly, and Lost Pilots. Their latest books, Between Two Fires, Covert, and Memory Outside The Head are available on Amazon. Their upcoming work will be featured in Work upcoming in the Seventh Quarry, La Presa, and Doubly Mad.
Barbara Martin is an award winning artist who grew up on three continents—and has lived coast to coast. She earned an MBA, is a certified creativity coach and teaches art. Her work is contemporary in style and leans toward the abstract and sometimes surreal or visionary.
Ignatian Literary Magazine 