“Pocket Knife” by Meryem Yildiz
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Pocket Knife” by Meryem Yildiz.
Pocket Knife
By Meryem Yildiz
my father prays so much there are sunken
indents in his prayer mat. between salahs
he moves from left to right, to even it out.
he lives in those hollows, studies them with
his knees, his hands, his implacable forehead.
an expert in routine, stable footprints, in prostra-
tion to the most merciful, always seeking mercy.
i don’t understand where he gets his faith, this man
with a pocket knife so sharp it could kill a man,
this man who never knew the meaning of comfort.
some foggy mornings, he pulls out the blade,
peels bright oranges in long broad strokes. how
can a blade that releases the sun also threaten
a rival in the boiler room of a norwegian ship?
the thought of it—the pocket knife in his pocket
or under the phone, next to the nail clipper in the
mahogany buffet drawer. a means to cut unruly
strands, some more rind, some more man,
to cut the dark out, to find the light.
Copyright © Meryem Yildiz
Forthcoming in Backbone (Guernica Editions, fall 2025).
Meryem Yildiz is a poet from Tiohtià:ke (Montreal) whose work has appeared in publications across Canada. In 2022, she won The Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Award for Poetry as well as the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s carte blanche Prize. Her debut collection, Backbone, will be published by Guernica Editions in 2025.
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