Tuesday poem #475 : Kimberley Orton : doublestitch/gran

 

pitching woo to an old bird like her

we fall in love with notions (she fell in love with nolan ryan)
curve cast fast ball red thread warning (she called him her boyfriend)
sharing secret, midnight kitchen, root beer floats
for girls only stitch stories about what we know
of my broken dad and what we think i see
fork lightning past sheet rain/glass windows, flash
flood of sweet hard ruby ribbon
candy beckon you watch me, curious, hone it to a point
needle between teeth crunch confess
i trust lick strawberry pudding slowly
from the lid’s sharp edge you marvel smile
your eyes disappear cheeks gather rise like the dawn
over fairy lake i love my hand melting into yours, always
paddle my salty toes in your purple granny bathwater
lavender everything even grandpa cold floor quick knit
slippers air heats sunshine marmalade jam we make
with love your big arms squeezing
me (all) together warmed in mourning

 

 

 

Kimberley Orton is a writer, poet, photographer who lives by the lake in downtown Toronto. Recently shortlisted for CV2’s Foster Poetry Prize, Kimberley’s poems have been published by The West End Phoenix, League of Canadian Poets, CV2, Book of Matches and Understorey Magazine. Mostly known for her writings about strong women who, through sharing their stories, are able to (re)connect themselves to one another, to notions of sanity, and to a feeling of place, Kimberley is exploring themes of love, loss, and memory in fragments in a new hybrid forms collection. She is currently completing her MFA in Creative Writing at UBC.

Website: kimberleyorton.com
IG: @om.kimberley
Twitter: @ki9 

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan

Tuesday poem #474 : Daniel Owen : BAD AT EXAMPLES

 

 

 

nothing so
sure as the
world on the
wind. where the empty
square that
confirms the box
checks out when
who could be
inside. spills
a little nyc all
over it like a photo.
kept arguing
with itself over
coordinates.
a break
right?
fallen world stuff
with such
belabored grace.
the great rind they
call it, take a lick and
shudder all sinful,
etcetera, lists. can
you hear
the technology
of the cigarette draining
out the voice
the late city's
record.
like anyone
else you lurch
through some
kind of innocence or
backyard impossible
in a rock
'n roll fantasy.
as anyone's supposed
to go. the moon
honeyed to a nail in
the sky all
us or dust please

 

 

 

Daniel Owen's recent publications are Celingak-Celinguk (Tan Kinira, 2021), Up in the Empty Ferries (Third Floor Apartment Press, 2021), and Points of Amperture (dos-à-dos chapbook with Jennifer Soong's When I Ask My Friend, DoubleCross Press, 2021). His translations from Indonesian include Afrizal Malna’s Document Shredding Museum (Reading Sideways Press, 2019) and poems by Malna and Farhanah published in various journals and magazines. Recent writing and translations have appeared in Circumference, Asphalte, Columbia Journal, and The Poetry Project Newsletter. He edits and designs books and participates in many processes of the Ugly Duckling Presse editorial collective. 

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan