{"id":14476,"date":"2022-11-14T12:30:45","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T18:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/?p=14476"},"modified":"2025-11-15T12:12:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T18:12:26","slug":"submitting-and-midwestern-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/2022\/11\/14\/submitting-and-midwestern-boy\/","title":{"rendered":"Submitting and Midwestern Boy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

John Grey<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

__________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Submitting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We could all send blood,
a few drops of the red stuff
in a tiny corked tube.
But how would the editor
isolate the worthy from the doggerel?

Not a pound of flesh.
Editors aren\u2019t Shylocks.
But maybe an ounce or two.
Like a little finger
severed from the hand.
Any editor with a half-way decent eye
could separate the slender from the calloused.

But everything\u2019s online these days.
Body parts aren\u2019t digital.
So words it has to be.
Sent from one stranger to another.
Popping up in in-boxes.
Words of indistinguishable blood.
Words of personalized little fingers.
__________<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Midwestern Boy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
One moment, he is writhing on the ground in pain,
the next, in his truck, driving down old route 15.
No smoke, no noise, no grabbing at his leg.
Just fields of triple-tall ripe corn.

He always figured at a moment like this,
he\u2019d look around for a sign.
But he closes his eyes, does that sign one better \u2013
a scarecrow standing guard by the stalks

and wearing his favorite stained and tattered jacket.
Then the scarecrow asks, \u201cWhy the fuck did you join up?\u201d
There\u2019s a journal on the passenger seat,
some notes with little drawings.

About his wife. His children. The town.
Some are real happenings. Some are dreams.
That\u2019s why, he tells the scarecrow.
Because of real happenings. Because of dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John Grey<\/strong> is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Sheepshead Review, Stand, Poetry Salzburg Review and Red Weather<\/em>. Latest books, Covert<\/em>, Memory Outside The Head, and Guest Of Myself <\/em>are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Crucible, Rathalla Review<\/em> and Open Ceilings<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
__________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<< Back<\/a> Next<\/a> >><\/p>\n\n\n\n
To learn more about submitting your work to Boudin<\/a><\/em> or applying to McNeese State University’s Creative Writing MFA program<\/a>, please visit Submissions for details.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Grey __________ Submitting We could all send blood,a few drops of the red stuffin a tiny corked tube.But how would the editorisolate the worthy from the doggerel?Not a pound of flesh.Editors aren\u2019t Shylocks.But maybe an ounce or two.Like a little fingersevered from the hand.Any editor with a half-way decent eyecould separate the slender from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[243,159],"tags":[75,160,18],"class_list":["post-14476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boudin-2022","category-boudin-november-22-edition","tag-boudin","tag-november22-edition","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14476"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21339,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14476\/revisions\/21339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}