Schöne Name (Nice Name)
Easter Sunday in Karlovy Vary
waiting for the bus to Prague.
It arrives with a resurrected sky,
blue skin scarred with white trails.
Bus driver, bald buttery head
surprised at my family name,
laughs affectionately, amazed.
Schöne Name! I agree, grateful
for gentle humour, not playground
mockery that still punishes,
every consonant a stigmata.
He spots my wife’s Polish origins,
no laughter, onboard, away.
The Music Played
Under the arches of the portico,
pressed against the back wall,
so that her body becomes stone,
she watches the three-piece band,
a much taller crowd gathering
in front, blocking her view
but not looking down at her,
at a cruel discord in her DNA
that jangled her fates, played
havoc with cell division
leaving her stunted, her face
mud-slipped on one side,
her limbs twisted like a wind-
bent tree. These guilty words
have no right to express her
peace and beauty as the music
played, her bobbing head,
her enjoyment despite the Life
dished out from scraps.
——
Matthew James Friday has had poems published in the following UK and worldwide magazines and literary journals: A Handful of Stones, Bolts of Silk, The Brasilia Review (Brazil), Cadenza, Cake Magazine, Carillon, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (Hong Kong), Dreamcatcher, Earth Love, Eastlit (East Asia), Erbacce, Envoi, Finger Dance Festival, Gloom Cupboard, IS&T (Ink, Sweat & Tears), The Journal, The New Writer, Orbis, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, Sonic Boom, Third Wednesday (USA), Of Nepalese Clay (Nepal), The Peacock Journal, Pens on Fire, Pulsar Poetry, Rear View Poetry, Red Ink, South Bank Poetry Magazine, The Dawntreader, We Are a Website New Literary Journal (Singapore), and Writing Magazine.