Flute Song

Three winds
braid through me

Three winds:
One the body’s petulances

exaltations of joy, moods
from quietude to

domineering, even a willingness
to inflict pain–an allegiance

vowed to that capo
the Murderer

Three winds:
Also, a day that inches by

minute after minute
to construct years become leaves pouring from

a yellowed aspen
in late Fall

–an unceasing gale
that reshapes flesh like steam

that rattles downspouts, windows
a brute flow

that disperses chimney smoke downwards and away
along with entire forests

blocks of stores
neighbors, parents

Three winds:
And one the stream of ashes from a burn pile

swirling with me as I circle
to try to escape the particulates that

scratch at the eyes
choke my airway

confuse me about which body, whose time
I move inside

about who pushes forward through the
gusts and eddies

with my name

~ Tom Wayman

Tom Wayman currently teaches English and creative writing at the University of Calgary, after a long career teaching in mainstream and alternative post-secondary writing programs in B.C. In Winter 2007 he was the Fulbright Visiting Chair in Creative Writing at Arizona State University, and in October 2007 will hold the Ralph Gustafson Chair in Poetry at Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo, B.C. His most recent books (2007) are a collection of poems, High Speed Through Shoaling Water, and a first collection of short fiction, Boundary Country. He is president of the board of Sheri-D Wilson’s Calgary International Spoken Word Festival.

One Response to “Flute Song”

  1. This was an enjoyable read. The repetition, the flow, the texture, all made me feel the solitary notes comprising this piece.

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