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
I can’t unfriend a dead friend on Facebook
I can’t delete the number on my phone either
What am I expecting? A phone call?
A text message?
Heaven really needs to expand its
cellphone coverage
Hell only makes collect calls
I never pick up those
I know it’s just a spammer trying to sell me
something I don’t need
They must have a lot of free upgrade plans down there
Their marketing teams are killers
Friendship online can be a tenuous thing
Is a friend on social media a real friend
or just a means to an end?
Like a creeper on a wall clinging to a boundary
Or a border between two countries without
immigration checks or customs clearance
I have too much baggage, anyway
And always need to unload
I grieve at birthday reminders
I re-read your last posts, your last messages
You are a haunted house with broken windows
I peek in to see your ghost
‘Come out and play’, I say
You laugh, smile then walk away
Not my time, already?
But why did yours come so early?
It’s like you took an elevator up and pressed the top button
You should have gotten off earlier
You missed my floor
I am still here
And all the elevators are broken
They only go down now
I take the staircase sometimes
Just to hear the echo of you
I could use a hug tonight
Do you give lots of those up there?
Do you receive any from the angels?
I never ever saw God as the huggable kind
Just an old guy with a long beard with a mean streak
Put us all on one planet and left us here
Go forth and multiply?
We overdid it I think
How do you embrace 8 billion people?
Even a thousand friends online is too much
One hug, truly given, is all I need tonight
But ghosts and gods don’t hug, do they?
Invisibility is too high a wall to cross for now
It’s a boundary you can’t see, but always there
A border on a map made up of broken lines
This border between us is made up of broken hearts
I am just glad there is no unfriend button on your end
Because I am never going to unfriend you on mine
First published in London Grip New Poetry journal, UK, and also on Eat the Storms Podcast, available on Spotify: https://bit.ly/eatthestorms
