HARD TIMES

JOHN GREY

A handful of frogs and salamanders

wallow in oily mud surrounding

tilted tombstones, crosses.

They seek out insects,

the next meal always

a flick of the tongue away.

No names, no dates.

Not even the most adroit

of stone rubbers

could bring dead history

back to life.

A dying pond

abuts a forgotten graveyard.

Tadpole corpses float to the surface.

Human remains go deeper underground.

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Stand, Santa fe Literary Review, and Sheepshead Review. Latest books, ”Between Two Fires”, “Covert” and  “Memory Outside The Head” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in the McNeese Review, La Presa and California Quarterly.