the poet’s anniversary
the wind blows
blusters and gales
breaks apart
the perfect storm
evaporates the lakes
and ponds pulled from the earth
so recently
so hurriedly
that our reticent bodies
still shake with wet
while globe flowers flounder
and irises take on
the down slope
without breaking their stalks.
too far this medusa might
has travelled, and still
on this hill, oak
and pine and ash bend
bark drying
now like salt
iodized in a fevered
flood of receding river.
the Bow’s feet and hands
sent the swell beyond
the predictable:
immeasurable muck
shinning silt
and liquid death
killing homes unaware
re-mapping our streets
stilled in their
pre-stampede stance.
the souls about to parade
soiled clean
lucky strikes and lassoes
forgotten fodder
until – in a 200 truck clean-up trail ride
the hell or high water
t-shirt dressing drenched brides
grounded astronauts, and our sleep-deprived mayor
became a badge of honour
birthed in the flood
of tears baptizing us
on our dead poet’s anniversary
Note: “the poet’s anniversary” alludes to June 21, 2011, the day Robert Kroetsch died.
~ Anne Sorbie
Anne Sorbie was born in Paisley, Scotland and she lives and writes in Calgary. Her work has appeared in journals such as The Wascana Review, Alberta Views, Geist, and Other Voices, and in the anthology, Home and Away. Anne’s first novel, Memoir of a Good Death (Thistledown Press 2010) was on the long-list for the 2012 Alberta Readers’ Choice Award.
You can read more poems by Anne here.
You can learn more about poet Robert Kroetsch here.
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