i would i were thy bird

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Welcome to my poetry courtyard, my dearest invisible friends. Tonight, Verona has lent us its moonlight, and we will all be consumed by her many illusions.

“O, swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon…”
—Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2 🕯️

After reading this week’s poem, if you’re so inclined, feel free to scroll down and check out some of the things happening in my world as I continue these adventures in writing. Now, on to some new poetry….

This week’s poem made me think about one of my favorite cultural glitches: in The Bard’s Romeo and Juliet– there is no balcony.

Or at least, not in the way most of us have been carrying that wrong memory around our whole lives. Shakespeare gives us a window instead. 🤯 The famous balcony came much later (a 1939-40 restoration in Verona) yet somehow the later version became the real one in our collective imagination.

That feels so perfect to me, because it may be one of the great romantic Mandela Effects.

We do this constantly. We inherit the wrong version of something, fall in love with it, and then defend it with our very being. A movie line we swear was said a certain way. A cereal box we’d bet money looked different when we were kids. A family story polished by retelling until the facts quietly give up and leave the room.

Love works like that, too. Doesn’t it?

Very few of us love inside plain reality. We love inside atmosphere. Inside misremembrances disguised as certainties. Inside the stories we tell ourselves about what happened, what was said, who we were, what it meant.

Later, the facts come along and start tapping us on the shoulder. Fine. Maybe it was a window. Maybe the balcony never existed.

And yet that is still the scene we remember.

I think that says something profound about being human. We are not only creatures of fact. We are creatures of image. Sometimes the wrong version holds the feeling more completely than the corrected one ever could. Yet morphs into fact.

And we would die on a hill debating its recalled veracity.

Can you recollect anything in your life that echoes that same sort of Mandela Effect? Something remembered…wrong?

As always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts, feelings, and reactions to this week’s poem in the “Leave a Reply” comment section at the very bottom of this page.

-PS Conway 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️

🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️

i would i were thy bird

we should have stopped
when our love was pledged beneath a balcony
that never existed,
a Mandela Effect,

a window cast in candlelight instead,
and me bathed in an inconstant moon.
the milky night air
scented with apples,
and rose-colored pheromones,
and the allure of bad decisions.

competing birdsong sought to warn us
of our folly, debating the merits
of dawn as though another day could save us.

for we would depart eager in that sunrise,
horny and hungry, ready to feast,
and our Froot Loops never tasted so good,
even when memory insisted
they were really Fruit Loops.
glassy-eyed, sugar high,
never knowing the Loony Toons’ sign-off
might signal our demise.

i still feel your glove
soft against my cheek,
leaving me wanting
to become that little wonton bird,
cherished to death,
yet tethered in silk.

🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️

🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️

This Week’s Links to my published work…

Media News…

*COMING THIS WEEK* Just finished my interview with Steve Cuden for his brilliant podcast StoryBeat – what a great conversation! It should air April 21 at Noon. More to come – but do check out Steve’s interviews with other writers and artists – https://www.storybeat.net/

*NEW* My interview with Editor-in-Chief, Gabriela Marie Milton of Literary Revelations Publishing House: https://literaryrevelations.com/2026/01/25/the-portrait-of-a-poet-ps-conway/  

*NEW* My interview with author Tricia Copeland on her podcast Finding the Magic Book is now available to watch: https://youtu.be/NhieYECI-H4  

Latest Publication News 

It has been a productive last few months for me. 7 POEMS published. If you are interested in a reading any of these, I have embedded the Amazon links below.

  1. My poem mercy will be published in The Ekphrastic Review on May 12. They are a literary “online journal devoted entirely to writing inspired by visual art. Their objective is to promote ekphrastic writing, promote art appreciation, and experience how the two strengthen each other and bring enrichment to every facet of life.”
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  2. My 3 poems – the wet centre is bottomless, laugh tracks, and three flights away – will be published in Mouthful of Salt in Issue #3 on April 27. They are “a Black-led literary journal dedicated to bold, boundary-pushing storytelling. Our editorial vision is shaped by a wide range of lived experiences, and we are committed to creating a space where writers from across the globe can be seen, heard, and celebrated.”
    *
  3. My poem the color of staying was published in the Spring’26 edition of PHIL LIT Journal on March 15. This literary journal “promotes writing that engages with philosophical, metaphysical, ethical, & existential themes; without sacrificing beauty, craft, surprise, or risk.” Please be sure to check it out.
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  4. I have 2 poems – paint and i have seen love do the same – published in The Belfast Review, Winter/Spring 2026. Based in the north of Ireland, this gorgeous emerging literary magazine, in addition to poetry, “aims to create a dialogue between the arts, featuring genres not usually included in literary journals such as song lyrics, plays, screenplays, and hybrid forms, to better reflect the lived experience of art, the self, and the city.”

Latest News – Life Sucks…

So far, Life Sucks has received so many ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Editorial Reviews. More to come soon.

I’m anticipating a whole bunch of solid Reader Reviews to begin populating Amazon in the next few weeks, too. The goal is to get to 50 Reader Reviews asap to kick Amazon’s promotion engine into a higher gear.

Speaking of Editorial Reviews, we secured a BIG ONE – BookLife. This is the indie press division of Publishers Weekly and represents a major credibility lift to my published work. Here is a link, in case you’re interested in reading the entire review:

https://booklife.com/project/life-sucks-memories-and-introspections-during-the-great-covid-lockdown-101267

And here are a few other snippets of other editorial reactions so far!

– “Snort-laughs and gasp-worthy wit – PS Conway goes there, and it’s hilarious.”

– “A must-read for anyone stressed, cynical, or just in need of a damn good laugh.”

– “Darkly funny, brutally honest, and weirdly comforting – like therapy, but with colonoscopies.”

🕯️ COME BACK EACH WEEK FOR NEW POETRY 🕯️

2 comments

  1. Nice PS, thought provoking poem …
    Reality can be harsh, or not as we would want, maybe we need to ‘sugar coat’ it to make it more palatable for our future reflection.
    Always look forward to seeing your work, sugar coated or not 😊.
    🙏🙏🍀🍀☀️☀️

    Reply

    1. Thanks so much, Sandie. I think it’s always cause for a moment of pause when our stories we tell ourselves become our realities. Our self-induced Mandela Effect, eh? Glad it was thought provoking! Cheers 🥂🙏🏻☘️☘️

      Reply

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