How Music Saves by Carolyn Gregory

Looking down, you say that
humans are a failed species,
killing the earth as they harvest
tobacco, spraying with pesticides
at the expense of lambs and corn.

Here in the corner of the village
where lawn chairs spread in the square,
young people do what they do best,
jitterbugging to country guitar,
the pianist's hair styled in its
old fashioned pompadour

oblivious to anything
but the beat, flinging their hands
in joy at the moment
in front of them.



Carolyn Gregory’s poems have been published in American Poetry Review, Main Street Rag, Off the Coast, Cape Cod Review, Cutthroat, Borderlines: Texas and the Seattle Review. She was nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize and previously won a Massachusetts Cultural Council Award. Her two books were published in 2009 and 2015. Additionally, she has reviewed classical music and theatre over the past twenty years.