Two poems by Alice Major

Foil

Today an arrow of edged joy.

A shaft.  A passage from shadow into gold

September’s aureate branches toss – oro,

aurora, foil of leaves. Bright guild.

An aching blade slips below my ribs.

The sky’s blue hook. The oak’s black gall.

A topaz, faceted to trap light’s glance

in its bevelled cell.

Clematis chimes its hours from yellow bells.

Samaras clatter on ash. Time is called.

Advice to the lovelorn

We are observing Eros,

raddled asteroid, lumpish and erratic,

on a loopy path such that

our planet and that planetoid

just might find themselves

one day trying to inhabit

the same point on their intersecting lines.

So keep a wary eye on it.

It’s no sleek bow-directed arrow,

this potato-shaped tumbler

aimed at no particular target in the dark,

just a stranger across a room

that could suddenly become

much too crowded.

Remember this and contemplate

the drowned crater of Chicxulub,

where an asteroid stove in the planet’s rib,

turned rock to instant liquid

and instantly back to mountain, a crumpled scab.

And how the noise was heard two thousand miles away –

everyone knew your business. How dark

the skies turned, whole species lying down

to die in the shadows.

But remember too –

you can’t see that crater now.

The blue gulf washes over it.

Small creatures you’d previously ignored

became more interesting, filled in the gaps.

And always remember,

though nothing will ever be

the same, still you

are bigger than it is.

Alice Major has published nine highly praised poetry collections, three of which have been shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award. She won that award for The Office Tower Tales in 2009. She has also received the Stephan G. Stephansson Award (for Memory’s Daughter). Her newest book is a collection of essays, “Intersecting Sets: A Poet Looks at Science,” for which she received the Wilfrid Eggleston award and a National Magazine Award Gold Medal. As Edmonton’s first poet laureate from 2005-7, she spun out poems on everything from potholes to hockey finals.