An Abandoned Carousel

By John Grey

I feed the horses
with a handful of invisible hay.
And thread their wooden manes
with my toothless comb.
“Good boy,” I say as I pat 
the raised head of the painted stallion.
And “Good girl” greets the round 
green and blue stomach of the mare.

I pat the back of the dead operator.
I praise the rusted machinery,
especially the lever 
that won’t bunch an inch
no matter how hard I pull on it.
And I stop for a moment to 
listen to the loud whistling breaths
of the calliope music.
What music? you may ask
but nobody does.

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Midnight Mind, Trampoline and Flights. Latest books, “Bittersweet”, “Subject Matters” and “Between Two Fires” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Levitate, White Wall Review and Willow Review.