John Grey

The Guy At The Open Mike

He wore frayed blue overalls.
His close-cropped hair
would have passed muster
in army boot camp.

He sat stone-faced
at a coffee house table,
a few scraps of paper
spread before him,
sipping on coffee
as black as what
most everyone else was wearing
in that basement dive.

It was an open poetry reading,
the usual stream of monotone-voiced sufferers
of every emotional malady
that ever spread its sensory viruses
through the written word.

Someone asked if he wanted to read
but he shook his head.
“My stuff’s just shit,” he sighed.

Next up was a blood-clot on two legs
whining about Christopher Columbus
followed by a girl
with face so pale and white
you could have mistaken her
for a page intentionally left blank.

He said he worked second shift
in a factory,
jotted things down from time to time
about stuff he knew
like work and riding his motor bike.
“Besides,” he added,
“my voice is raspy
and people find the way I talk
tough to understand.”

Open mike went on
without him
but sorely in need of him.

 

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in New World Writing, New English Review and Tenth Muse. Latest books, Between Two Fires, Covert and Memory Outside The Head are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, Amazing Stories and River and South.