Photography © Edward S. Gault

 

My First Apartment

There were years when I knew

every inch of this place

the heat of the rooftop
the chill of the cellar

the faint bloodstain on the wall
courtesy of a previous tenant

the variegated colors
of the pigeons on the windowsill –

by day
by night

I could be a blind man
and still see

but now…
not now –

I moved on
couldn’t keep this old
apartment building in sight

and seeing it these days
it doesn’t look like something
that’s been waiting for me –

if a building could say,
“can I help you mister?”

this would be the one.

 

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. In his first job at a local grocery store was awarded a pushcart prize for returning the most abandoned pushcarts to their parking lot corral on a given day.

Edward S. Gault is a poet and fine arts photographer living in Brighton, Massachusetts. His work has appeared in Oddball Magazine, Spectrum, Wilderness House Literary Review, Interlude, Currents, and Encore. His poetry collection, Airhead and Other Poems was published this year by Read and Green Books.