She tells me
to find beauty
in ordinary things:
            acorns & oak trees;     
            bluebells & snapdragons;       
            butterflies & bees.

I look around town
and get lost in concrete–
            stacks of white & grey,
            aluminium balconies
            & glass sheets.

The town is
a prodigal son,
            miles away
            from Mother’s touch.

I find beauty
in the paradox of
            the parched man
            hosing water
            at stray cats.

© Jeremy Mifsud

Maltese-born Jeremy Mifsud is a queer, autistic writer and poet, currently reading for a Masters in Cognitive Science at the University of Malta. Social ineptitude becomes a catalyst for his art as he weaves unsaid words into poems and short fiction. He has self-published a full-length collection Welcome to the Sombre Days (2018). More of his poetry and fiction appears or is forthcoming in Fly on The Wall Press’ anthology Please Hear What I’m Not Saying, Lucent Dreaming and others.