"Regarding My Night On The Town" by John Grey

Regarding My Night On The Town 

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And all went well till there came the rush.
Late night in the city, men running at odd angles.
They said, “This is how it is.”
As their legs got ahead of their bodies,
I shouted “Bon Voyage!”
They headed to the wharf, scrambled aboard
a boat that wasn’t theirs.
My eyes kept them covered.
(All were escaping from this hated city.
One brushed my face in passing
which angered the buildings to such an extent
that my reflection in the shop displays
got me no further than loneliness.)
Everybody but me found a place on deck
where they could wave to the ones left behind.
They went to a better place.
They were the merchant marine of souls.
A cold shadow held my hand.
Light crawled across my face like beetles.
Ah, the injustice of it
I said to myself, “Where do you think you're going?”
I do that when I’m not going anywhere.

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John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in New World Writing, Santa Fe Literary Review, and Lost Pilots. Latest books, ”Between Two Fires”, “Covert” and  “Memory Outside The Head” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in the Seventh Quarry, La Presa and California Quarterly.

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