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
Your starlight takes eight minutes to reach earth,
a journey of 93 million miles we take for granted–
Oh sunny sun, singular solo solar ball of brightness,
dawn-creator, daybreaker, purpose-maker,
when you puncture through cloud cover
and awaken us enough to greet your arrival,
do we feel lucky, unworthy, or listless, apathetic–
merely mournful at your mundane constancy
like the traffic cranking up another cranky day
gridlocked in routine, another loathsome squeal
of wheels on asphalt, threading through our foggy,
logged-out brains, readying minds for the whine
of the criminally unkind, the tick-tocking
of death’s clocking, all the news to serve the blues
and not focused on the eight minutes it took to deliver
your sublime light on the only goldilocks planet
that bears all this weeping, spilt milk of the hateful ilk,
your unerring cold stare, hot glare just right
to confess our sins through this divine slat,
the minuted agenda of our guilt,
our messed up stewardship,
piercing us in forgiving beams of hope
daily, as if to say: Do better today!
Do better!
First published in Mayari Literature, Issue IV: Sun Align, San Francisco, USA.
