The Whispering

You hear whispers
as you push your cart
up the supermarket aisle,
two young kids in tow.
“He sure could use a good woman.”

It’s the same
in the laundromat,
you on the bench,
a kid in either side,
all three watching
clothes spin.

Or when you’re in the park,
just strolling with the children,
or feeding breadcrumbs
to pigeons and mallards
or watching that tiny brood
as they run in circles.

No one ever says,
“You need a new car.”
Or “you need a new job.”
Old cars, old jobs,
do not whisper.

 

Poet John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in Examined Life Journal, Evening Street Review and Columbia Review with work upcoming in Leading Edge, Poetry East and Midwest Quarterly.

Photographer Steve Warren is a veteran, recovering addict and peer specialist who became a self taught Naturalpathic self healer. He changed his diet, started dancing, took to writing and performing poetry, and hasn’t stopped healing since.