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Writer's pictureMarías at Sampaguitas

Poem by John Grey

YOUR JOURNEY MAN

I figured there was a way to get to you.

With my inner GPS. My natural

farm-fed Mapquest.


I was like this compass in jeans and t-shirt.

A sextant who, with the aid of the stars,

could measure the angular distance between two objects

and work from there.

And I boasted sails the wind had plenty of time for.

A fleet of fast cars - well one at least.

Yes, my stupidity had more than enough tools.


The idea was to just keep moving,

to follow whatever tracking device

was working most proficiently

in a vehicle that best devoured the distance.

My heart was restless.

My mind buttered itself up with possibilities.

It was a case of

I know where you are.

I'm headed that way.

Just try and stop me.


If I understood anything about myself

it was this primordial determination.

For hadn’t I burst from the womb

wailing and resolved.


So I even arrived exactly where intended.

Then you had to go tell me

you were not my destination after all.


I could have strangled Rand.

I could have shot McNally.




John Grey has recently published in That, Dunes Review, Poetry East and North Dakota Quarterly with work upcoming in Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, Thin Air, Dalhousie Review and failbetter.

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