{"id":5592,"date":"2016-11-14T18:15:08","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T18:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/?p=5592"},"modified":"2016-11-14T18:18:00","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T18:18:00","slug":"gas-station-a-poem-by-john-grey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/gas-station-a-poem-by-john-grey\/","title":{"rendered":"GAS STATION. A Poem by John Grey"},"content":{"rendered":"

 
\n 
\n 
\nStraw hat’s busted
\nand the blue and red flag’s dragging on its pole.
\nThe road’s as narrow as a plumb line
\nand the sides are baked brick hard.
\nRusty gas pump only offers regular.
\nIn the window, brown and speckled eggs,
\nsoda bottles, a can of oil.
\nUnshaven Ed flops in his chair out front
\nStraw hat can’t keep back July,
\ncakes his brow a stinky yellow.
\nA car creeps by but doesn’t stop.
\nMaybe can’t read the price of gas.
\nEd’s handwriting’s shaky
\nas his mortgage payments.
\nMay’s quilting, the only thing
\nher fingers know to do.
\nDespite the heat, her handiwork
\nrolls up to her wrinkled chin, almost smothers her.
\nAnd here comes Vernon,
\njust who Ed don’t want to hear.
\nSo Dewey’s got a new computer.
\nTell that to the chamber of commerce.
\nAnother car rolls by. And another.
\nSomeone even waves.
\nStraw hat’s raised in answer, in anger,
\nthen flopped down sideways on Ed’s head.
\nGo help your grandmother, Ed says.
\nSteam rises from the swamps,
\nraccoon pans the trash for food,
\nwood-stork chatters from a cypress branch.
\nVernon creeps reluctantly indoors.
\nMay stops her quilting for a kiss,
\nstruggles to remember who exactly is this boy.
\nAlong comes Temple to complain
\nabout the weather and business and his wife.
\nEd listens but his ear is cocked for cars the more.
\nHe straightens his straw hat.
\nBrim holds by a thread.
\nHow long you had that thing? asks Temple.
\nForty years, says Ed. It brings me luck.<\/strong>
\n 
\n 
\n 
\n \"File0004\"<\/a>
\n 
\nJohn Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in New Plains Review, South Carolina Review, Stillwater Review and Big Muddy Review with work upcoming in Louisiana Review, Cape Rock and Spoon River Poetry Review.<\/strong>
\n 
\n 
\n 
\n 
\n 
\n 
\n 
\nwww.facebook.com\/PoetryLifeTimes<\/a>
\nwww.facebook.com\/Artvilla.com<\/a>
\n robin@artvilla.com<\/a>
\neditor@artvilla.com<\/a><\/strong>
\n 
\n 
\nKey of Mist. Guadalupe Grande.Translated.Amparo Arr\u00f3spide.Robin Ouzman Hislop<\/a><\/strong>
\n 
\n goodreads.com\/author\/show\/Robin Ouzman Hislop<\/a><\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.aquillrelle.com\/authorrobin.htm<\/a><\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.amazon.com. All the Babble of the Souk. Robin Ouzman Hislop<\/a>
\nwww.lulu.com. All the Babble of the Souk. Robin Ouzman Hislop <\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.amazon.com\/author\/robinouzmanhislop<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.innerchildpress.com\/robin-ouzman-hislop.All the Babble of the Souk<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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      Straw hat’s busted and the blue and red flag’s dragging on its pole. The road’s as narrow as a plumb line and the sides are baked brick hard. Rusty gas pump only offers regular. In the window, brown and speckled eggs, soda bottles, a can of oil. Unshaven Ed flops in his … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1842,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[707,43],"tags":[18,136,3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5592"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5597,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592\/revisions\/5597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}