At five years
I cannot consent to swallow your love cold— down my throat you pour, I choke. At five years we left your stranglehold. From you, my childhood was pigeonholed, left alone, you couldn’t phone despite us being kinfolk. I cannot consent to swallow your love cold. At nine I suffered from your mould. Ten I counseled … Continued
1989
Autumn evening calls, it’s after dinner and we are out the door. It’s dark and it doesn’t matter. Innocent energy unfurls, high-tops hit pavement, full tilt. We run and run through the neighbourhood; jump fences, sneak through side-yards. A labyrinth of cat-walks and cul-de-sacs. The Block Watch patrols and peeks out front windows. Lungs puff … Continued
Changes
The sun rises late in the morning and sets early in the evening, a sign that autumn is departing, with its bright colours and crisp leaves, as winter arrives with cold mornings and dark nights. I shiver as I walk to the library, longing for comfort. Warm air encompasses me as I step inside, my … Continued
Queens
Have you seen the dark at Wounded Knee? Have you seen queens and kings who sing and act in glorious beauty? I have. I have seen queens and they are beautiful. They transcend with raven hair and coffee toes. They rise from caramel and milk chocolate skin and toffee and cedar and ooligan grease. Yes, … Continued
Burial Rites
Don’t bury me in a cemetery below the pockmarked blocks that romanticize the forgotten. Bury me next to an abandoned school where memories of younger days mix with decay. Bury me next to a lighthouse wherein the dark light can still be seen. Bury me next to a waterfall where what has fallen still continues … Continued
Generations
To my naïve generation, yielding, too inexperienced for truth. Politics, panic, purgatory yet untouched. We hardly know love from lust. To my gullible generation, unthinking, with media’s unending hiss. Bidders buy young minds. Convinced to believe anything we don’t believe in ourselves. To my angry generation, rebelling, with misplaced red rage. Misdirected feelings lash. Who … Continued
Ode to Morning
Nighttime sighs her last goodbyes, Sweet sunlight trickles in. I’ve never moved my arm so fast, This alarm makes such a din. My muscles ache, my eyelids burn, Don’t ask about my head. If I must do this every day– I wish that I were dead. Why, oh why, I moan, I cry, As stumbling … Continued
Two poems
November Rose Your friend cried because she was too busy to get sick, you dropped everything and crossed the room to kiss her forehead. I longed to catch her cold and wished I knew how to cry. Your taxi never came because I got the address wrong. I hated that I made you wait in … Continued
Dear Mr. Christianson
The letter I should have wrote to Mr. Christianson: Thank you for going to bat for me, for bending the rules, for talking the principal into letting me graduate even though technically, I had too many absences, for seeing my talent and telling me I had it, for knowing that I needed a break and … Continued
Calesa
In Nanaimo, I take a cab to work. I spend the midnight shift serving subs, Japa-dogs, and gourmet poutine, to the slurring, swaying, bar crowd crying out for more pickles, less pickles, no onions, more sauce please, this isn’t what I ordered. But on my days off, I take a bus to work, ask for … Continued
Silhouette
The first bullet hissed and broke air spiraling from the rifle barrel; a kiss adiós blown from atop the Mandalay Bay lair. A Nevadan reaping concert goers’ bliss; few shelter from a hail of depleted uranium. Country music fades from Vegas Village stage gunfire’s melody, the last note in their craniums was a grueling testament … Continued
I Stand with Janis
I hear you are afraid, I believe you. See you. You are important. Your voice it does not waiver requesting accountability. Resilient. Strong. Warm. I hold a candle that shines for you and a prayer that you never give up. Department head, I hear you— that you were Afraid. Your battle cry, sweet music crystal … Continued
Maxine
I first fell in love at eleven years old and felt the heartache down to my marrow. Free-falling, unaware, drowning in bliss; I didn’t see the noose till I was over the cliff. The first day of school was when we met. She liked Pulp Fiction, U2, and Johnny Depp. In less than two months … Continued
Atticus Man
World, becomes dense alters assumed constellation to starry force Masked with stellar sense. Land into sea— Drowned, a little-felt nation smother another course lest they cease to be. Comfort, dear Life awaits the morrow Granted, give you patience whether it be yours or another’s cheer. Clear water floods sweeps conscience under rug spread out on … Continued