from “OLD MAN VACANAS”
1
The
old man
to
whom I’m married
hits
the sack again
after
breakfast.
A
black bear
out
in the rain
on
Blueberry Flats.
Is
it too wet
to
hibernate? The muddy creek
burgeoning.
By
lunch, he’s up.
The
sky’s no lighter – candles
with
our tea.
Tell
me, can a soul
fatten
up for winter?
***
5
The
old man who picks up the phone
does
not get your message.
Call
again.
Please
call again.
The
cats leave squirrel guts
on
the Tibetan rug.
Augury
I cannot read.
You’ve
got to talk with me.
I
scrape glistening coils
into
a dust pan,
spit
on drops of blood and spray ammonia.
The
blood spreads into the white wool.
I
am so sick of purring beasts.
Don’t
tempt me, old man.
Today
I have four arms
and
weapons in each hand.
***
6
If
you want to know the way
out
here,
I’ll
tell you.
Drive
and drive.
The
road goes up and down, to and fro.
If
you want to come visit,
I’ll
invite you.
My
old man won’t know
the
difference
between
you and billy-be-damned.
He’s
been wearing out old thoughts—
holes
now in plenty.
Fewer
in his drawers.
And
he’s not keen on new ones.
We
lay the bricks of conversation.
Block
one. Block two.
Small.
Tidy.
Start
again.
Solid.
Reassuring.
Four
windowless walls.
Roar
up the drive. Spit gravel. Blow your horn.
I am
gnawing through myself.
***
8
My
old man
oh,
my old man, oh my
old
man
is
lean
as
a wooden spoon
stirring
batter
that
folds
around
it the way
at
his waist
a
softness drapes.
He
sleeps on his back,
straight
as a broom.
He
sleeps on his side,
curled
like a cat.
He
sleeps with the heater going
and
a T-shirt on.
My
old man likes
to
catch some zzzzzzzs.
***
11
The
old man
takes
his choppers out
when
chicken sticks to them.
He
parks them in a glass
of
blue fizz.
DNA
from fossil bones
tells
us we’re siblings to Neanderthals—
and
the small arrangements
we
make? Language, travel, art? Props
in a
little, local, theatre of light.
Blue Sonoma (Brick, 2014. 45 – 55)
Jane Munro's sixth and newest collection, Blue Sonoma (Brick Books, 2014), was
awarded the 2015 Griffin Poetry Prize. Her previous books include Active Pass (Pedlar Press, 2010), Point No Point (McClelland &
Stewart, 2006) and Grief Notes &
Animal Dreams (Brick Books, 1995). Her work has received the Bliss Carman
Poetry Award, the Macmillan Prize for Poetry, been nominated for the Pat
Lowther Award, and is included in The
Best Canadian Poetry 2013. Munro is a member of the collaborative poetry group
Yoko's Dogs whose first book, Whisk,
was published by Pedlar Press in 2013. She lives in Vancouver. .... about Jane Munro .... about Yoko's Dogs
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