John 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.

To Be Precise

it occurs to me
as I watch you sleeping

how you are the result
of an endless chain of events
involving airplanes
thoroughbred horses
step-mothers
and probably even the likes
of toothbrush bristles
and Clint Eastwood movies—

in other words
nothing is assured—

the world may operate
under a certain kind of precision
but its contents don’t—

you’re here
because a sugar maple is not—

I’m the result
of a left turn
that could have just as easily
been a right—

I could go back in time
fix a leaking tap
and make you vanish
drip drip drip drip—