“after reading someone else’s poems” by dl clay
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “after reading someone else’s poems” by dl clay.
after reading someone else’s poems
By dl clay
I closed the book
the words so crumpled and familiar
I thought they must be stolen
my pockets picked while
I looked at the moon
she was so loose with those words
the same ones I worked
to shelter in my body
she poured her words into all shapes of books
placed them under sunlight
where anyone could open them
how could she stand the touch?
the knowing?
was it all for that intake of breath?
I move myself through a stranger’s world
not knowing who looks back
mirror trick
flashing light from the sun into
a dark room trying
to take away the shadows
exposure
I want to not to be
to strip down
to bone blood
without my skin
I can flow
without my skin
I can throw away the mirror
move between a hundred worlds
become anyone
her him
and another tomorrow
Copyright © dl clay
Previously published in Where We Reside – Poems of Time & Place, 2022.
dl clay (Deb Clay) is a writer and artist living on Vancouver Island. In response to her mother’s dementia and her own aging, she has been exploring memory and what it is to remember. She is constantly exploring and experimenting with various media to fuel her art and writing. Deb has self-published two hand-bound chapbooks of poetry and mentored five group poetry chapbooks, each themed book made up of several writers. A coordinator of Sooke Writers’ Collective, she continues to help writers develop and publish.
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