[for Dave]
Not born a beauty.
Cheeks planed and plunging,
nose arched like a Roman-bred mare’s.
Life scars, broken bones,
time’s chasms and contradictions.
Faith outweighs truth.
Learn to dine alone,
eyes shielded by my forelock.
I can do this.
No flinching.
The book, the meal, the day,
wearing solitude like my prayer shawl.
When we meet, late lovers,
we celebrate.
A new year,
even as I count on my fingers […]
1. Pull.
Magnets rattle loose in his blood,
radar locked when he crosses her path.
Particles charged with aches he cannot identify or locate,
maverick monkey-stars set adrift from their orbit.
2. Watch your step.
Collide.
He watches her back,
her skin sliding down her skirt,
cotton so careless, flesh loose in the breeze,
lifts above her knees as she ascend the stairs,
imagines she is […]
Keen fishermen
Of the sporting kind
Thinking themselves kind,
Release the hapless fish
They have caught
On a barbless hook.
Kind to the fish.
Not kind to a lover
Caught on the lure
Of your allure.
With no wish
To be free.
Standing on the shore
While you cast for more
In the eager sea.
~ John Bishop Ballem, 1925-2010
Earlier this month, Alberta lost a prolific writer and remarkably generous […]
Dymphny and I hope that those of you living in the Calgary area will join us to celebrate the launch of Home and Away tomorrow:
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Time: 5:30pm
Location: John Dutton Theatre, Central Library, Calgary Public Library, 616 Macleod trail SE, Calgary
Readings by Home and Away Contributors: Marlene Dean, Cort Delano, Frances Herne, Barbara Janusz, […]
The evening shuffles in,
the slow yawning of the sun.
Workers slowly shake off
their zombie walks,
emerge from the elevators
of glass and steel office towers
as butterflies set free from their cocoons
tired but desiring
to float free, flutter, dance
until the bars close
and the requirements
of labor dictate descent
into sheet wrappings
until the hive draws all
back to cubicles and desks.
~ Joseph Farley
Joseph Farley […]
