Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Atlas Poetica, Number 21, May 2015

rusted train tracks
over abandoned prairie
will-o'-the-wisps
beckon us into the light
until we become blind


they wondered
if she was a changeling
this fey child
with alabaster skin
and raven-feather hair


we seek refuge
under a railway trestle
thunderstruck
by flamenco dancers
with hailstone castanets


rogue wildfire
a matchstick forest
smouldering
in the burn ward
the screams of a child


the boy
slipped off his medal
placing it gently
around the neck
of his grandfather


Prairie Quills


they made
my sister give me
her new doll
every time I wheezed
between shots of adrenaline

each morning
we vomited our porridge
on the bus ride
over roller coaster hills
to a one-roomed school

the slop pail
always needed emptying
that winter
we found three kittens
frozen on the windowsill

we choked
on the acrid smell
of singed feathers
never forgetting
how lifeblood drips away

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