skeleton of water hemlock, near st. albert, jan. 2010
field grasses by a lake, near st. albert, jan. 2010
It is August, and I have neglected posting for two months now, I know. After I defended my PhD fieldwork proposal in mid-June, I have been summering at home in Edmonton in preparation for going to Siberia for aforementioned fieldwork. I've been making things & taking photos & thinking about things, but not really sitting down long enough to do much with them. This is a recently finished-after-many-months, very unseasonal poem.
* * *
ice fishing II*
arching sedge bows low on the
shoreline, weeping into the snow.
slice my finger open on the auger,
cut skin gaping, a flared gill.
your lake lies in winterkill,
a thousand trout white bellies up
& bursting like cold willow
stems, flickering in the dark water,
snowflakes frozen to the sand.
there are two worlds here, in
the water: one obsidian sharp,
one soft as amber. from land
i call, how are you, down there,
father? but the voice i hear
is wasp’s nest hollow, awake
and gasping for air. how
do i lure you, now, out of
this dark season? where weeds
sway as if shadows only in the
memory of bent light? o
father, it was just a leech**,
you know, who sucked a small
hole in the sky’s white flesh, let winter
bleed out, suffuse into sun –
* * *
driftwood sculpture, lesser slave lake, alberta, august 2010
sunset & reflection, lesser slave lake, alberta, august 2010
