John Grey

John Grey is an Australian poet and US resident, recently published in Penumbra, Poetry Salzburg Review and Hollins Critic. His latest books, Leaves On Pages and Memory Outside The Head are available on Amazon. He has upcoming works in Lana Turner and Held.

I am awake,

eyes unravel

in hot coffee steam,

heart drifting

a thousand light years away

but mind, as always,

pecking through

facts and figures.

This outpost

is a sorry place,

but I’m a scientist

who must take pleasure

in the most arid soil,

the barest rock,

of a planet

that surely deserves

to be unknown.

Far from the breath

of a loved one,

this world kills

in a way

so no harm

seems to be done.

I’m roused

from dreams of home,

to reconvene with what

I’m being paid to do:

the travel,

the digging,

the assaying,

the reporting.

It’s a vast galaxy.

It’s beautiful

where I choose it to be,

ugly everywhere else..