The Felling by John Grey

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in

That, Dunes Review, Poetry East and North Dakota Quarterly with work upcoming in Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, Thin Air, Dalhousie Review and failbetter.

THE FELLING

A forest of ringing axes

thunders like fleeing wildlife,

as trunks crack and fall,

sap drips to the ground

like blood without body.

A field of skulls

is aimlessly rooted

to sun-scarred soil,

as men move on,

triumphant blades held high.

Years later

I encounter the devastation

in a diary,

tears as words,

dry but unrelenting.

No need to return,

cuss out the damage

some big box store has wreaked.

It’s the page, fixed lines,

that govern a memory.