Gray Morning, and: Wind, and: Against

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• Gray Morning, and: Wind, and: Against
• Michael McGriff (bio)

Gray Morning

We’ve come to think of life hereas one elongating seasonmarked with a tap-and-die sky,a fistful of birds tossedagainst the rag light.My son asks the unanswerablequestions. Each query linksto the next, coal cars pulledtoward the lung-dark trellishis pain builds into the world. [End Page 92]

Wind

When the dead unbury themselves,will they finally throw awayall the chipped saucersand scrape the contact paperfrom the cupboards,will they awakeninto the ceremoniestheir bad knees and small regretshave become? Like me,will their final acts of sincerityinclude keeping their heads downat the grocery store, avoidingconversations with others?

I remember, now,when rat piss, hay, and starsall smelled the same

and how the barn sangin the wind,and how no one caredif I slept there all nightwithout naming any of itor wanting it namedor wanting anything at all. [End Page 93]

Against

As soon as I turnmy back the waveswill undressmy memoriesof the waveswill breaktoward someone elsemaybe youwill hold theminto this lighteverything turnsthe same coloragainst. [End Page 94]

Michael McGriff

Michael McGriff is the author of four books of poetry, Eternal Sentences, Early Hour, Home Burial, and Dismantling the Hills. His other books include a translation of Tomas Tranströmer’s The Sorrow Gondola, an edition of David Wevill’s essential writing, To Build My Shadow a Fire, and the story collection Our Secret Life in the Movies. He codirects the MFA program at the University of Idaho.

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