Synkroniciti is stoked to welcome poet Samuel Prestridge from Georgia (USA) with two poems that tickle the funny bone and pull at the heartstrings, often at the same time. “Elvis,” one of our poetry finalists, is both a tribute to the legendary performer and an exploration of southern family, functional and dysfunctional: “driving with my father as though riding under water,/ chilled blue water we clamp our mouths against./ Instead, my father reaches for the radio,/ and Elvis bubbles out, the only air on earth.” In the car or the kitchen, the King accompanies life, even though “He’s booked in Nether-Vegas. Solid. Forever.” Samuel’s sense of humor bubbles up, irreverent and effusive, carried on rhythmic waves of words. The second poem, “Laundry Day is Guerilla Theater for Jesus and Synchronicity, Waggish Cousins,” a most delicious marriage of the abstract with the everyday, is a whimsical trip to the laundromat with cousins Jesus and Synchronicity, who “work best/ as a team.” Jesus is “no great shakes// at laundry,/ but all the clothes somehow turn out perfectly,” while Synchronicity plays with the socks and is especially wicked with the whites. “When no one’s watching, he throws// in each, one red cotton sock.” Mad-cap but never meaningless, cheeky but warm-hearted, Samuel’s poetry is so much fun you might forget how intelligent it is. His irreverent humor allows him to approach deep matters without fear.
Read Samuel’s lively poetry in Synkroniciti’s “Family” issue, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/. We are pleased that he will be back with two more poems in our upcoming “Vulnerable” issue.
Samuel Prestridge lives and works in Athens, Georgia. He has published work in numerous publications, including Literary Imagination, Style, The Arkansas Review, As It Ought To Be, Poetry Quarterly, Appalachian Quarterly, Paideuma, The Lullwater Review, Poem, and The Southern Humanities Review.
“I write poetry,” he says, “because there are matters that cannot be directly stated, but that are essential to the survival of whatever soul we can still have. Also, I’m no good at interpretive dance, which is the only other option that’s occurred to me.”
He is a post-aspirational man and his book A Pebble’s Worth of Riot, a Dog’s Job of Work is seeking publication. His children generally affirm that he is an adequate father.