Mementos
they smile used smiles
like moose meat stuck in your molars
loud snow falls in the street light
outside the window
water fell from the fishermen’s line
with promises of the alphabet
October is slipping away
like lukewarm faith
like a dog chases its tail
the past bit me in the ass today
snow falls, seagulls hang suspended,
enthralled with distant planets
he stood alone
with a pelican’s poignant patience
out of the preacher’s zeal for heaven
heavy waves heaved
irises held us in a circle of I’s
like a fence of barbed wire
the mask of masculinity
masks the illusion of lunacy
the autumn I should have left I bought
cowboy boots but couldn’t afford a horse
my son Aaron philosophizes
about mini-wheats
like spring snow our words are spoken
into the earth-warmed air
she drinks lots of tea,
infuses us with love
since imitation can spell limitation
let the moment be inimitable
with an X-acto knife I will cut out
the heart of logorrhoea
her love sticks to me like a burr
or a splinter of heaven
like a nautilus’ shell I lug
my working class stories everywhere
the summer I knew I was leaving,
I walked in soft green boots like moss
this box of memory fragments will
never be organized in a story or poem
~ Carl Leggo
Carl Leggo is a poet and professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia where he teaches courses in English language arts education, writing, narrative research, and postmodern critical theory. His poetry and fiction and scholarly essays have been published in many journals in North America and around the world. He is the author of three collections of poems: Growing Up Perpendicular on the Side of a Hill, View from My Mother’s House (Killick Press, St. John’s), and Come-By-Chance (Breakwater Books, St. John’s), as well as a book about reading and teaching poetry: Teaching to Wonder: Responding to Poetry in the Secondary Classroom (Pacific Educational Press, Vancouver). Also, he is a co-editor (with Stephanie Springgay, Rita L. Irwin, and Peter Gouzouasis) of Being with A/r/tography which has just been published by Sense Publishers.
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