Matthew James Friday
Matthew James Friday has had over 60 poems published in numerous international magazines and journals, including, recently: All the Sins (UK), The Ear (USA), Brushfire Literature & Arts Journal (USA), and the Waterford Teachers Centre (Ireland). The mini-chapbooks All the Ways to Love, Waters of Oregon and The Words Unsaid were published by the Origami Poems Project (USA).
A Swan on a Pond in the Evening
A swan on a pond in the evening,
wriggling into itself, ringing
around and around, neck like a noose
around the bright white day, head
burrowing backwards into black
folds of its back. Can’t stand the dark;
such a big bird scared: so much
cold water, night-noises, nothing.
Swallows Leave Ticino
From north-facing windows we watch
waves of swallows pumping past,
slithers of wings on bobbing currents
following summer south as it flows
Down Alpine valleys into Italy,
back home, African elastic snapping
back as cumulus clouds pile up
over the Ticino alps. Some bolt past
in small gangs, rolling over each other’s
airstreams. Others are lone stragglers,
struggling to catch an exhausted sun.
We watch and wonder how we arrived
at this new view, home yet found.
Sheila-Na-Gig online 