Tuesday poem #39 : Phil Hall : Comfort

 Breathing out slowly

they will tell you I have gone    

 training     a kind of fear

looking right at me    

  they will say     she is no longer with us

training     a chorus of fear

 in the same extravagant breath

they will assure you     I am at your side

 an ancient chorus     infear / outfear

don't be ridiculous

*

 Our slight gap     a wild cathode

nothingness     signing us

Ph . Otty Lake . 2013

Phil Hall's [photo credit: Marty Gervais] most recent book is The Small Nouns Crying Faith (BookThug, 2013). His book of essay-poems, Killdeer (2011), won Canada's Governor General's Award for Poetry in English, as well as the Trillium Book Award. He lives near Perth, Ontario.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan