Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Portal” by Elizabeth Greene.

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Portal

By Elizabeth Greene

This year, astrology’s full of portals.

Chinese, too, Snake shed its skin,

Fire horse set to gallop on.

This new moon’s a portal,

ushers in Aquarius,

still in January, month of doors.

A few days past the portal

ICE thugs kidnap a five-year old,

snatch a two-year old,

pile on a nurse,

pepper spray his face

shoot him—

ten times.

Walk away.

Boo-hoo, says one.

Is this the coming year?

Streets bloody, smeared with tear gas

Two month old babies detained, deported

(the worst of the worst?)

Or tens of thousands

resisting in the streets

forming human SOS signs,

Abolish ICE.

The Goddess lives

in my red January amaryllis,

in the ground below the snow,

in invisible stars,

says, Remember me.

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Copyright © Elizabeth Greene

Elizabeth Greene has published four books of poetry, most recently “No Ordinary Days” (Ekstasis, 2024), and a novel, “A Season Among Psychics.” She edited and contributed to “We Who Can Fly: Poems, Essays and Memories in Honour of Adele Wiseman,” winner of the 1998 Jewish Book Award for Best Scholarship on a Canadian Subject. She originated courses on Women Writers at Queen’s University and helped found Women’s Studies there. She lives in Kingston, on the unceded territory of the Anishnaabe, Haudenosaunee and Huron Wendat.

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