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
Oh, please!
You are neither sun nor moon.
Spare me the astronomical comparisons.
You are neither star nor planet, not even a passing
comet.
Such metaphors belong only to hopeless romantics.
I am more pragmatic.
You are a doubleshot espresso on this chilly morn
when the barista — finally — spelt my name right.
You are the lone firefly in our backyard I bottled
as a sad child just to watch you flicker all night.
You are the dandelion I blew in a single breath,
scattering all your seeds in the wind on a merry flight.
There.
I compared “thee” to a beverage, an insect and a weed.
In the family of things, you are something.
Something warm, winsome and wish-worthy.
Nothing grand, distant and unreachable.
But something smaller, closer.
Something I could hold in my curious, trembling hands,
if only you would let me.
First published in the literary journal Masticadores Canada.
