Mara makes muffins on Sunday
at 4 a.m. – still drunk, abandoned
Yells at invisible trespassers
shows them a map
directs them to dark, lurid places –
points to her heart where it was sliced.
Sunday afternoon, she calls us.
The muffins are split with fruit
coarse flour, raw sugar, sour milk
kept warm under a white cloth.
Her coffee is full bodied,
and heavy.
The secret […]
Sitting in a worn outFold out camp seatReading H.S.T.’s Hell’s AngelsSipping on brandy-orangeLast of the day’s sun withering on my face& on my cucumbersThey have spots & many of the leafs have wiltedPerhaps diseased & dyingI chew on this a while,Drink to the bounty they’ve given meNod my head back into the bookWhere I find […]
Walking the puppy amid the ruins
of another long winter, lawns sepia with mould,
the snow dying without grace, gumbo on my heels,
the dog is happy, her tail a flag of joy
but I curse this exile north of 55
and the circumpolar wind, ugly as seal breath,
that haunts a landscape unfit for anyone
but skittish trappers or a priest
on […]
A Tribute to Al Purdy’s Poem At the Quinte Hotel
I’m drinking
I’m drinking tea with lime wedges
in my bedroom
on a hot summer night
you can see
…I’m a demure woman
there’s a rucus a raucus rucus
under my bedroom window
it trolls down the street
as a young woman repeats
the F word
…not a demure woman
…that’s me
plugging one ear
and […]
After visiting Vivian Demuth
Catherine said:
she lives in the sky.
Wait and see.
The tower is perched
on the summit,
spindly metal legs
stretching up,
grass neatly trimmed
around its base.
I stand at the edge
look out into sky,
then down:
a sea of trees,
the road a rugged chord
twisting its way up here.
Some of us climb
the tower to the top
or as far as we dare.
Later
we sit […]
