"LEAVING AFTER DARK"
By Matt Smythe
There’s a moment when
the sound of my footsteps on gravel,
and the creak of my pack,
and the hugeness of breath in the fields
and night in its soaking weight
all go away—
when, like color leaving a face, moonlight drains
from the road, the thin grass, the low yawning hills—
when the owl
swoops in giant flight
to snatch a mouse and I feel and hear
the roiling air;
the thump of their meeting—
when I am,
and with eyes closed,
begin to hum something quiet to myself.
Matt Smythe from the Finger Lakes region of western New York. An Army veteran and lifelong outdoorsman, Matt suffers from an inability to sit still. If he’s not in the woods, or on the water, he’s scheming ways to get there. His work has appeared in Free Range American, Gray’s Sporting Journal, the Fly Fish Journal, The Drake, Southern Culture on the Fly, Revive, Midcurrent, TROUT Magazine, and a handful of other non-outdoors-related magazines and literary journals. He recently published a book of poetry with Dead Reckoning Collective titled Revision of a Man.
Follow Matt’s blog, Glorious Mayhem here.
THIS WEEK AT SAVAGE WONDER!
🎶 Petty Larceny – Wednesday, July 9 @ 7PM (No Cover)
Classic Americana, roots, rhythm & blues—Patricia Santos and Brian Broelmann light up The Parlor with heart, grit, and groove.
🎭 Savage Wonder Improv JAM – Friday, July 11 @ 7PM | $5
Jump into the joy—host Don Romaniello leads a wild, welcoming, and unscripted ride through comedy chaos.
🛏️ Bedroom Farce by Alan Ayckbourn – Sunday, July 13 @ 2PM | $25
Marital mayhem, conjoined shirts, and delightful disaster—this staged reading is farce at its most unhinged.
Reserve your spot before it’s too late!