“Grit” by Claire Gordon
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Grit” by Claire Gordon.
Grit
By Claire Gordon
He told me it takes about
twenty-eight days to set
four weeks to recover
from fixation
I screed off
deleterious solids
investigate
the mechanical strength
of my dependence
I spread smooth
excess layers
to reveal a planed surface
bubbling with durability
compressed
exterior insulates
resists fire
the whole house
can burn down
but cement will remain
it takes twenty-eight days to set
and my hands
toughen and get rougher
my skin is cracked
microtears catch
on nearly everything
an unwanted adhesive
this sheath becomes
increasingly shriveled
and unlovely
like wrinkled linen
crumpled and tossed
to the back of my closet.
Copyright © Claire Gordon
Previously published Sea & Cedar Magazine.
Claire is an emerging West Coast writer. She is a settler of Celtic, French, and Eastern European ancestry. Her history working in the backcountry of Provincial Parks sparked an ecofeminist attention, which led to her meditations on human interaction with the land through narrative and documentary poetics. Claire’s previous work has appeared in Sea & Cedar Magazine and Portal Magazine.
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