Matthew James Friday
Matthew James Friday has had many poems published in numerous international magazines and journals, including, recently: All the Sins (UK), The Blue Nib (Ireland), Acta Victoriana (Canada), and Into the Void (Canada). The mini-chapbooks All the Ways to Love, Waters of Oregon and The Words Unsaid were published by the Origami Poems Project (USA). Website: http://matthewfriday.weebly.com
Kites Dancing in Switzerland
Above Ladir, a loving pair rise up
from yellow meadows, tottering cows,
bells ringing. They gladden the thermals,
wings outstretched in effortless prayer
to invisible forces, the unseen spheres
that turn under and around. Upwards
in circles of affection they wind, orbiting
around and around each other, tipsy wing
tips just about touching. They dip
into each other’s elliptical space, swerve
aside and fall back into smiling circles.
Only jealous crows
interrupt the heavenly dance, forcing
emergency manoeuvres, ugly ducking,
diving to avoid disruptive black holes,
but easily out-swooped and away
to dance in a higher atmosphere, above
the deepening V’s of the Glogn valley
forested forearms, the rising mountains
still singing with the white aria of winter,
conducted by an ancient music so old.
The kites dance in and out of their solar
system while above swifts silently
watch in their effortless ballet play of air
and geometry, graciously sharing the floor.
The knowing moon softly bares witness.
Sheila-Na-Gig online 