Today, I offer my shoulder as a well to contain all your tears When you are all cried out, let me be the underground river that floats all your burdens away When your heart sinks lower than it ever as, let me freedive, on a single breath, follow its air bubbles to the bottom to retrieve it When the sadness pours inside you like a drowning wave, let me conjure up a pea-green boat and sail us both off to sea
Today is a bad day– No owl, no pussycat All I can offer are these paltry, made-up metaphors Strung together as hasty, temporary band-aid Frosty comfort amid frustrating pain, I know– I know also you know today will pass Knowing doesn't make it any easier We've had enough bad days to know better And all these Nos, and knowing, never adds up to a single Yes
Blessed are the mothers and fathers Blessed are the sacrificial care-givers Blessed are those who have no other options Blessed are those who endure lengthening bad days Blessed are those who never see the light of a good day, only rare moments, fewer and farther between
I pray, our day will come It is just around the next bend, my friend Pass the well of tears, over the river of burdens, above the sea of sunken hearts, Just one sail away through this ocean of sadness
Where one day, one bright night, soon we'll play Owl and the Pussy-cat again Go hand in hand, on the edge of the sand and dance by the light of the moon and dance by the light of the heavenly moon*
(* Last lines paraphrased from "The Owl and the Pussy-cat" by Edward Lear)
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Julian Matthews is a mixed-race poet and writer from Malaysia. He was nominated for the Pushcart Prize by Dream Catcher magazine/Stairwell Books, UK in 2022. He is published in The American Journal of Poetry, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Loch Raven Review, Live Encounters and The New Verse News, among 60 other literary journals and anthologies. Link: https://linktr.ee/julianmatthews
Lightwood 