Michael appeared in issue #2, the Fall/Winter 2008 edition of The Stray Branch with the following poems...

"A Real Life Poem"
"Sleepwalkers Union"
"Any City, Any Town, Any where"

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 A Real Life Poem

Sleepwalkers Union 

Coffee does not make up for lack of sleep.
Stayed up dreaming wide-awake.
Dreaming of something bigger than the money
The other world seems to revolve around.
But then the alarm clock rings too early.
Yes, back to reality.
Sweet utopia shattered,
Under the weight of your debt.
Sleep walk through another day.
This world does not own you.
It does not identify you.
It does not know you.
You're only playing a role here,
Waiting for your utopia to return.
Waiting for the night to come.

©Michael Grover 2008 

Any City, Any Town, Any Where

On the wrong side of town
At the food mart,
People float their hopes and dreams,
Whatever they can save
On lotto tickets and scratch offs.
With hopes this just might be
Their ticket out of here.

Across the border,
The great class divide.
On the other side of town.
Bright colored new cars
Parked on the street
With bright colored stickers on them.
Echoing their support for the president
And the troops.
Echoing their support for the system.
They sit comfortably eating
At elegant sidewalk cafes.

This is two views
Of the city where I live.
But the city it doesn't need
To be named.
It can remain a vague concept.
This could be
Any city,
Any town,
Any where.

©Michael Grover 2008