after we immigrated,
Holland and its tangle
of noisy, loving relatives
ceased to exist.
in my preschool mind
the plane had rocketed
us through space and home
had spun away endlessly
lost somewhere between
Greenland and the stars.
except for Opa’s warm ghost
who recited poetry to me
in each new bedroom
long after my parents slept,
my grandparents’ voices
vanished, their faces blurred.
only at Christmas
when my mother’s face
glowed in […]
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 […]
We have been enjoying all of the submissions sent in for Home & Away. Thank you! In the hope of inspiring even more submissions for the anthology, we would like to share two poems that would both fit the theme:
***
Our Empty, Empty Bed
After the last child is tucked in,
and the jumble is tamed […]
I on my front step
deliberate meditation,
slow sips of hot, sweet coffee
Crow on his fencepost
fastidious cleaning
his beak wiped on grey wood
late July sun shimmers
on his bakelite feathers
on my copper strands of hair
on the old dog nodding off
in her front porch pew
a breeze rustles leaves
dry as hymnals, hushes
the city’s restless muttering,
whispers a sermon on faith.
~ Dymphny Dronyk
Dymphny […]
Honeybees hum mutiny.
Listen! There are pandemic repercussions
in their slogans.
Where each hive was once a colony,
joyful, brimming idealism and bounty,
it is now modernized to factory,
a perfect assembly line.
The pollen of discontent sifts ever thicker
clouds their sense of purpose,
as workers grow sticky with longing
for the quiet universe of blossoms
that existed long before
the language of production quotas.
The drones […]
