Poetry

mother’s tongue

mother’s tongue

Our 2017 Poetry Contest Honourable Mention. mother's tongue They often ask: Will you teach your children your language?             As if it is a weapon I carry. Of course I will, ensure they are more fluent than I was. Hope that they can read and write it too....

My Body is Somebody

My Body is Somebody

—not part of me. She makes up games like Quidditch and plays with me. Body throws me down —not part of me. She makes up games like Quidditch and plays with me. Body throws me down on the playground and laughs with them who laugh at me. My body is a gaping hole that...

Nipiy

Nipiy

If our gratitude dries parched, we think nothing of        water If our tongues shrink, we  think of nothing       but water nothing of water; foresight        shortened dry, memory of                           these -dry -days Water, is taught by thirst. Land — by...

Higher Math

Higher Math

Our 2017 Short Forms Contest Honourable Mention. Higher Math I. I didn’t think it could happen again, after the burst tubes, emergency surgery, parents rushing north on a chartered plane. A year after, Janka visits, playing grandma, turning our kitchen fragrant,...

Willie

Willie

Every night, you sleep on my neck. Contentment seeps through our chakras. Every night, you sleep on my neck. Contentment seeps through our chakras. Your serene breaths and dreams of banana chips and walnut pieces and slow pats on the head, in that flat little plateau...

Castle

Castle

Low dirt path parts Loch Awe as a helix unbinding. We walk like thistled mutants to Kilchurn ruins. Low dirt path parts Loch Awe as a helix unbinding. We walk like thistled mutants to Kilchurn ruins. Us more ice and pine sap than salt or lanolin, but whisky, yes,...

Clinting in the Woods . . .

Clinting in the Woods . . .

. . . I found a pair of velvet-coated antlers, three fingers reaching from an open palm still throbbing with platelet’s hot breath . . . I found a pair of velvet-coated antlers, three fingers reaching from an open palm still throbbing with platelet’s hot breath as...

Sei Turni (6 spells for #CanLit)

Sei Turni (6 spells for #CanLit)

Hold a winesap apple to your brow and think of the worst possible outcome. Or has the worst already happened? How do you define cataclysm? 1. Stregaghi una Mela (Bewitch an Apple) Hold a winesap apple to your brow and think of the worst possible outcome. Or has the...

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