life urban sprawls
lawns of chain-dog
days and barbecue nights
a mini-series ago
last-call ungulate
and hawk stalked
these driven cul-de-sacs
homes on the range
stripped and malled now,
Alberta’s natural history
a book scant shelves
below Myth and Lore
above hearths and fake
fireplaces there may as well
be the trophy hunter’s gun
mounted and pointing
towards back doors opened
to non-native species
christening patches of green
with bottled […]
absence and fonder hearts
spark campground fires,
homes away from home
house-sat by anonymous
bugs tittering citronella
flame and drip
token guitars sing
through broken strings
of the ones that got away,
simpler times, and the blue
skies beyond the starry black
we conduct in mud-cake jean
and boot annealing
below marshmallow batons
beers and thermos-teas empty
as chill night fills
with harvesting moons, moonlight
and firelight ways to illumine
all […]
wind and traffic battle
‘til wind wins, traffic
noise parked mountains
below, irrelevant roads
reduced to binocular
vision, tunnelled
the gods up here
haven’t been touched
for days
up here the wind is not
gentle—plant feet carefully
and earn the right to king
and queen this castle
this domain; hold fast and
hug these rocks of ages and
maybe we can stay awhile,
the beginnings of the earth
spiked and […]
It’s all-inclusive in the Dominican:
the piercing blue sky, the juicy green jungle,
the lavish resort with facades painted peach
and mint and buttery yellow—
all built to relax and pamper
while the maids push their carts down tile corridors,
their bodies tight from hours of labour
rewarded by a US dollar laid flat on a pillow.
In the dining room, voices
mingle with […]
The possibilities of loss didn’t include this uprooting,
this stripping away and removing of bricks
that once stood solid inside my walls and now,
await rebuilding of home in a new land.
Once I took for granted the knowing—
the words I spoke, the songs I sang,
the simplicity of cobblestones beneath my feet,
but now, the Self has been called to […]
