BLUE

Matthew Murrey

@mytwords.bsky.social

Poet (BULLETPROOF from Jacar Press in 2019 and LITTLE JOY from Cornerstone Press in 2026), retired school librarian, and Midwest transplant from Florida long, long ago. he/him/his More at www.matthewmurrey.net/

171 followers202 following107 posts

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MMmytwords.bsky.socialSep 19, 2024 2:21am

Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #537,379!

MMmytwords.bsky.socialSep 13, 2024 1:39am

Kitchen prep staff are super busy at the new restaurant in Springfield, OH. Photo source here: www.gainesville.com/.../seized-c... FWIW, they taste like chicken. 😋

University of Florida vet school students and veterinarians work to spay and neuter cats as part of Operation Cat Nip in August of 2011.

MMmytwords.bsky.socialAug 27, 2024 11:48pm

For several years, a long time ago, I drove this small bus in Chicago. Here's a poem recalling one day on the job. rustandmoth.com/work/down-to...@rustandmoth.bsky.social

Image of a old, small blue school bus parked curbside in Chicago.

MMmytwords.bsky.socialMay 28, 2024 6:23pm

@npr.org @emilyolson.bsky.social Today at 12pm & 1pm CT Newscast "An administration official tells NPR there's been no indication that an Israeli airstrike Sunday in Rafah deliberately targeted a tent compound of civilians." How dare you air this rubbish. The IDF claimed the strike as deliberate.

MMmytwords.bsky.socialMay 23, 2024 10:22pm

This poem of mine was published today in Rattle. I hope you'll give it a read. 😊 www.rattle.com/tracks-by-ma...

“Tracks” by Matthew Murrey

Image: “Night Train” by Gerrie Paino. “Tracks” was written by Matthew Murrey for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, April 2024, and selected as the Artist’s Choice.

MMmytwords.bsky.socialMay 17, 2024 5:51pm

The Van Gogh Museum partnered up with Pokémon to celebrate its 50th anniversary and bring in new audiences. How could I resist writing a poem for that? Much gratitude to Okay Donkey @okaydonkey.bsky.social okaydonkeymag.com/2024/05/17/p...

Pokémon x Van Gogh Museum

In 2023, the Van Gogh Museum celebrated its 50th anniversary. To mark this milestone, the museum launched an official collaboration with Pokémon inspired by the shared link with Japanese art and cultu...

MMmytwords.bsky.socialApr 29, 2024 7:38pm

Five panicked horses ran through London last week, so I wrote a poem about it -- "Just Horses" dissidentvoice.org/2024/04/just...#poem #poetry

Just Horses
by Matthew Murrey / April 28th, 2024

"And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth…."
— Revelation 6:4 (KJV)

No crown, bow, sword;
no pair of inhuman scales—
just five terrified horses running
the streets of the great city.

Was there blood? There was—
and fire and hunger and blindfolds
and handcuffs and dirt and shrouds.

The sound of the future was loud:
Clop-clop! Clop-clop! The sound
of the future was a whoosh
then a blast. The sound of the future
was a buzzing that never slept nor wept.

A taxi swerved. A bus had its windshield
shattered. Someone ducked, someone
ran. An ambulance rushed the hospital.

There were five horses, wide-eyed
and galloping. They wore empty saddles;
they did not need riders. Death and Hell
were secure in their offices—sat at the table
with their minions studying maps and reports,
busy with the science of suffering and death.

MMmytwords.bsky.socialApr 15, 2024 12:03pm

For #TaxDay2024 www.vox.com/money/2024/3... This poem first appeared in BEYOND THE FRAME from Diode Editions.

1950s photo of a city street in what looks the financial district with a church steeple in the background. The photo is overlaid with the following poem:

Board of Trade

I know where
my treasure lies.
I have the receipts,
the accounts, the dividends.
I have a house
by the lake and a house
down south. Hand over
fist is how it comes
in the canyon of futures.
I will inherit the earth
and the poor can
carry me on their backs.

MMmytwords.bsky.socialApr 14, 2024 4:15pm

I had to be at work for the 2017 total eclipse, but this year I was fortunate to be able to drive a few hours south for totality. I'm grateful to Dissident Voice for publishing my poem about the experience. dissidentvoice.org/2024/04/afte...

After Evening It Was Daytime
by Matthew Murrey / April 14th, 2024

at two in the afternoon
it became evening

white was black full circle
and even planet and starshine

made me wish that
the millions of us gazing up

to reverence the change
might mean Oh

now all will be different
after six months of waking up

each morning to hope
for fires ceasing

for hospitals up and running
for trucks full of life

saving supplies rolling in
but I know what I see

what I saw what awed
and awestruck me

at two in the afternoon
it became evening and after

that daytime again
all its usual and trying hours

MMmytwords.bsky.socialMar 28, 2024 12:48pm

I appreciate The Ekphrastic Review publishing this poem of mine today. www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrast...

Wasn’t Bliss

Too young for regrets, I had no clue
what a chambered nautilus was, still our teacher
walked us through the spiral rooms of that poem.

First time I saw an O’Keeffe I was old enough
to know, but—inexperienced and naïve--
I thought that flower was just a flower.

I’ve scribbled my life with notes and reminders
to the point where even I can’t decipher
what I’ve written. What should I make of that?

I have lived long enough now to appreciate
the unwinding of a shell, the way a brush touches
a canvas, how words can cultivate a field of rue.

Matthew Murrey

Matthew Murrey

@mytwords.bsky.social

171 followers202 following107 posts