Matthew James Friday
Matthew James Friday has had poems published in numerous international magazines and journals, including, recently: Bushfire Literature & Arts Review (USA), Dawntreader (UK), Ginosko (USA), New Contrast (South Africa), Poetry Salzburg (Austria) and the Waterford Teachers Centre (Ireland). The mini-chapbooks All the Ways to Love and Waters of Oregon were published by the Origami Poems Project (USA).
Website: http://matthewfriday.weebly.com/
The Wren
My parents whisper a story
of a secretive wren in their back-garden
that has built her ideal nest
early
and now awaits her mate.
Every day she flutters
up to the telephone wire
and sings, trembling and loud:
a sound from beyond her little brown body,
reminding the world she was once queen
riding on the back of an eagle.
Now she sings for her king.
A short distance – for eagles –
to the common woods full of wrens,
singing and feasting; hushed mating
in the undergrowth. To my parent’s
garden wren it is a flight beyond
her stubby wings. So instead she sings
alone on the wire; tweaks her crown
and, at night, snuggles inside to dream
of cheating eagles and laying eggs.
Sheila-Na-Gig online 