Poetry

Dream Sonnet 3: Mother, Crater Lake

By Barbara Black
She contemplates her mirror-self, dead still / the afternoon air. No grasshoppers sing. / Lake limpid, a bowl of blue glass, a womb / too cold to swim. Volcano collapsed. / On...

reality wayfarers

By Linda King
you know the story / how the narrative shifts / anticipates departure / like sealing wax / or the broken logic of punishment /   / the last train gone past /...

On the Cusp of Spring

By Julia McCarthy
It’s been years now since you drifted / into the silence    years since you dug / a bed in the snow for us / since we lay down    your tail over your...

grace period

By Yiwei Hu
noon /           open    eyes /      skin parallel to /                      trembling spine / pillow awash            in nightmare & /...

Mirage in the Mire

By Tanja Bartel
Baptism in the river will be followed by a wet t-shirt contest. I walk a hot trail of dried peach stones. It is 33 degrees Celsius. I envy the church group standing...

Half-Macedonian

By Ken Babstock
Here’s the Eastern Orthodox Church, Community Centre / and Rec Hall. Your mom ate here / in the days before cable, / in nettles of rayon, at her cousins’ weddings. /  ...

it is good this

By Duncan Mercredi
to see the young join hands that are wrinkled / and have seen many winters / it is good this / to see our Metis kin / join hands in unity /...

Gaagi Biingwe

By Lesley Belleau
The small steps, overlooked / Like they were made from / Paper silences / Our screaming / The brick walls / Silty at the edge of our / Footmarkings / When-we-sang-the-trees-bent-over-praying /...

a new year’s eve

By Katherena Vermette
1 /   / my people are dancing / on Portage and Main / just like they danced there / 500 years ago /   / elders starve for words / settlers...