Matthew James Friday

Matthew James Friday has had poems published in numerous international journals, including, recently: Acta Victoriana (Canada), Borderless (India), and The Ear (USA). The mini-chapbooks All the Ways to Love, Waters of Oregon and The Words Unsaid were published by the Origami Poems Project (USA).

Feeding the Birds

He sits on a bench
on the promenade at Morges,
crumbling a croissant
and flicking it towards
the excited sparrows.

I watch him and remember
feeding ducks as a kid,
feeling life pulse in other beings,
the sugary spill of pleasure,

how during the Lockdown
I found solace in the business
of blue tits, the chaffinch chick
unafraid to linger on the balcony.

Now I watch the old man
feeding the sparrows, feeling
the life pulse in his hands,
and I look down at my own hands.

The Dipper

I caught you
scuttling off your rock
in the creek that slips
behind Morgins.
The frothy-white
wave of your breast
gave you away.

For a moment you perched,

bobbing your territory

and then returned to silence

broken by a man
crossing the creek
and spitting into the water.