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
My antennae can no longer receive
your transmissions
Perhaps they’re buggy–
Even feelers can stop feeling, sometimes
Oh well, it’s hard to be a bug, these days
My exoskeleton makes it even tougher
to give a – shrug
With all these repellents that suffocate
that get under my skin and irritate
Toxic influencers and their cultish locust parade
I’d rather be an outcast than in sects
You can never make the special one gravitate
from pupa to adulting to mate
There really is no time for fussing
and fighting, my friend
So I’ll just take these broken hind wings,
re-learn to fly and be on my way
I am just a scarab, after all,
in search of a mummy
When all I ever wanted was a six-legged hug,
you dummy!
First published in the literary journal Masticadores Canada.
