early sun limnsthe plate rail a kitchenreduced to grit & shambles butcher block table wallpaper slumped about its knees light here reveals only absence teasel in the bones ofthe victory garden thrustingbarrel staves like iron ribs what we have come for lilacs pressing inthese diamond panes their blossomstark & fragrant across the hearth rainwater shifting […]
November we descendfrom permafrost northcamp on the ice fire on a bierabove the riverpoplar logs green and sappysnow pitted fromthe flankers’ fall all day we followthe trucks gone before chancing rotten ice for tea white bread ten-pound sacks of potatoes fifty kilometres uprivermen detox on the trap lineswait for the trucks to returnfor their friends […]
creek ducks the boundary fenceleaves it slackjawed & danglingspring the cattle wallow in runoff mudplay their spines along the wire up the coulee ironstone peters to cactuswild lupine the onions are foundby scent biteof trodden leaves bulbs unearthed like molars crepuscular canyon light wild taste ofearth & dark water coyote on a lip of land […]
I knew no grandfathers gone, before my creation Piegan, Blood, Siksika, Tsuu T’ina, Haida, Gitksan, Dene speak often of their grandfathers pride and respect in their words I imagine theirs are mine seeking wisdom discovering patience by listening, watching The grandfathers teach learn to fly from the hawk soar high, clear eyed learn to sing […]
My mind hiccupping back to that sweet May smell of high snowpack melting, tickling down river beds – glacial shock to the underbelly of sun-stunned rock – I keep thinking didn’t it smell like rain to a thirsty traveler, but as usual there comes the question of honesty. Really I couldn’t have been thinking of […]
