THE EX MARKS MY SPOT

The ex has her knowledge
of how many men have held her since,
and I can’t decide whether or not it I should spend a life
entangled in the barb-wire of this issue.

Jealousy is a crooked journey away from itself
and many times I have tried unsuccessfully
to straighten it so that the distance between
becomes farther and faster.

Forms of love must embrace a little hate,
love letters written in blood,
love-making that replicates slaughter,
the words that remain
when we have used up all the kinder ones.

So I am by myself but I am never alone.
There’s always some essential thing hounding me.
It’s not simple, not even now, when I live in the desert.
Silence is not nourishment enough.
Dawn arrives but nothing really leaves.

John Grey is an Australian poet and US resident recently published in Orbis, Dalhousie Review, and The Round Table. His latest books Leaves On Pages and Memory Outside The Head are available through Amazon.