Tuesday poem #248 : Conor Mc Donnell : silent science

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At midnight in winter

leave a bottle of ether

wrapped in cheese-cloth

to sit on the sill

Add salt

it will dream of an ocean

Add dirt

it will cough and spill

#

Unsettle the silt

with wishbone fingers

wear gloves

it will dream of winter

fingers will chatter

like trappers treed

#

Bring fire

ripples will boil

steam snakes

slow as mercury

#

Unburdened

the ether

stretches to retain

a memory

of every

vessel it shapes

Conor Mc Donnell lives and works in Toronto. His first chapbook, The Book of Retaliations, was published in 2016 by Anstruther Press. His second chapbook, Safe Spaces, was published in November 2017 by Frog Hollow Press. Find out more at conormcdonnell.ca

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan