selected triptychs from Three-Part Harmony: Tanka Threads translated into French by Mike Montreuil
all winter
f i n a l l y
the river trail freezes
our ski tracks
the only graffiti
in this whitewashed city
the sound of tires
squeaking on new snow
a winter bird
rises from her rest
fluffing up her feathers
the neighbours
hibernate all winter
e m e r g i n g
into their backyards
like white-throated sparrows
otoliths
the soughing
of willows in night wind
how gentle
the songs of daughters
tending to their mother
the sweater
mother knit for me
a rainbow
fading at the edges,
her evanescent life
the growth rings
of otoliths and trees
when did she
become smaller
than her daughters
abandoned
a junkyard
of abandoned cars
once, well-loved
these skins shedding flakes
of other people's lives
rusted train tracks
over abandoned prairie
will-o'-the-wisps
beckon us into the light
until we become blind
stacked in one room
of the abandoned house
unmatched chairs
we invent a new ending
to our own story
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