The hole in my father’s field.
appeared overnight in the fallow field
where the sign post entered hard-packed ground.
From the highway side of the fence I see
weathervane falling, disoriented, all wind
into the widening gap.
Not one word.
The trailer tips over onto its shortest side,
funnelled into a sooty end.
Not one word so I could try.
This is entirely my fault […]
(Ryley, Alberta)
The trees lay a backing track against a lead shot sky;
just a slight buzzing, like breath blown through the teeth of a comb
and the periodic cracking of puddle ice.
There are mole songs, humming, running beneath the receding snow,
this year unnerving. Quieter.
The fire in our exhaust speeds the lazy thaw,
forces new hiding places as […]
The idle burnish of an ancient cowbell grows courage on a barn nail.
The sun, bright as an Icelandic night,
sends a satisfied gleam across the buckboard-wide table
crowded by near empty silver-capped jars: Gran’s jaw-shrinking dills
and vegetable marrow, prunes in sweet profusion, placed around bowls
empty of slaw and chicken.
We set out, refreshed warriors, into the bush
where […]
