Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine #12

Memory Dreams Memory talks as birds just after dusk; it is a streak lucid as heat lightning -a child on a swing set at dark, in night; her ears strain, waiting for thunder, it never comes, unaware it won’t; her belly rolls -- anticipation.

Humidity wraps around her, clouds are back-lit guiding her night, heat beckons electricity.

Wild, she feels wind rush through her hair, She pumps her arms, her legs, she swings as high as she can -- flight? up swing swing down up down held, suspended suspended, held; held in the eyes of this child, hair lifts up and out, her laughter mixed fear/excitement, lightning flashes -- a thunderbird wink just behind the clouds this memory, invisible veil of heat held loose like a child dreaming -in color she has become part of the night -open fields, wide skies -- hot, cricket songs, swish of swing, oscillating into visions -Judy Mathews Judy Mathews received her Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Spalding University.

Her writing has appeared in The Tau, The Badlands, The Avalon Literary Journal, and others. She is currently working on a collection of linked short stories and on a novel inspired by four generations of strong women in her family.