Introducing a new series of poems by Julian Matthews. Julian is a writer and Pushcart-nominated poet published in The American Journal of Poetry, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Borderless Journal, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Dream Catcher Magazine, Live Encounters Magazine, Lothlorien Poetry Journal and The New Verse News, among others. He is a mixed-race minority from Malaysia and lived in Ipoh for seven years. Currently based in Petaling Jaya, he is a media trainer and consultant for senior management of multinationals on Effective Media Relations, Social Media and Crisis Communications. He was formerly a journalist with The Star and Nikkei Business Publications Inc
Link: https://linktr.ee/julianmatthews
By Julian Matthews
Are you a megaphone or a microphone?
Or a washed up conch, awaiting
the random stranger to pick you
up, hold you tight, listen in close
to hear the soundtrack of your pelagic,
saline wanderings, as the waning sun kisses
the sky and sea goodbye, the tremolo
of youthful laughter melds with wishful waves,
and, in the distance, a memory of a mother beckoning
a child to come back to the shaded picnic table
for sambal sandwiches and soothing sarsi–
to hear those old tales that tickled the wind chimes
in your heart, echoing in the void you now avoid,
that unaddressed hole in your broken soul,
all the words you concoct to make you whole–
yet veil the salty shell hidden in the bowels
of your unamplified well.
First published in Men Matters Online Journal, Issue 11
