{"id":1118,"date":"2007-12-07T16:39:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-07T16:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=1118"},"modified":"2007-12-07T16:39:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-07T16:39:00","slug":"new-poetry-by-matthew-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/new-poetry-by-matthew-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"New poetry by Matthew Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Friday<\/span>


We-re not related in anyway,<\/span>
That\u2019s my first surprise. <\/span>
Seeing him on the ward, the second: <\/span>
laying flat in a bed, a very tall man,<\/span>
going bald in a Middle Management way.<\/span>
Smiling at me one minute, and then<\/span>

'Fuck off! Fuck off! Fuck off!'<\/span>

'It's not you,' his weary wife promised,<\/span>
patting my hand, interested in the same<\/span>
family name because it might be a way<\/span>
to get through to John, stop the foul stream;<\/span>
she was far beyond blushing now.  <\/span>

'Fuck off! Fuck off! Fuck off!'<\/span>

His great love, his wife told me, was – is –<\/span>
the stars, astrology. He swore<\/span>
by the star signs and looked for proof<\/span>
in every-day actions. He knew every star<\/span>
by names. Always looked up. Dreamt <\/span>
of being in space. Floating. Weightless.<\/span>

'Fuck off! Fuck off! Fuck off!'<\/span>

Now his space was a bed far too small, <\/span>
his feet poking out the end. A bleed<\/span>
in the brain had crashed his spaceship.<\/span>
A man who found the word toilet a disgrace, <\/span>
now incontinent. A man who recognised his wife, <\/span>
but not enough to tell her he loved her <\/span>

ever again.<\/span>


\u2022 <\/span><\/font>Matthew
\nFriday is a professional writer and graduate of the MA in Creative
\nWriting at Goldsmith College, London. He has had poems accepted for
\npublication in the following magazines: Carillon, Earth Love, Finger Dance Festival, The New Writer, Pens on Fire, Pulsar<\/span> and Red Ink<\/span>. He has also received a special mention in Poetry News<\/span> and won 3rd prize in Writing Magazine<\/span>'s Valentine Day poetry competition.<\/font>

<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John FridayWe-re not related in anyway,That\u2019s my first surprise. Seeing him on the ward, the second: laying flat in a bed, a very tall man,going bald in a Middle Management way.Smiling at me one minute, and then'Fuck off! Fuck off! Fuck off!''It's not you,' his weary wife promised,patting my hand, interested in the samefamily name […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}