Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis by Kevin Spenst

Poet name: Kevin Spenst Poem title: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Poem: One of my friends has been fading this fall and a heart clunks along like a wheel misshapen, loud, asynchronous to its centre. But there’s work outside, so I cling to this downward roll with a quick look back to that time in my living room when we were five years old and I was embarrassed that I had not yet learned how to tie my shoes. One of Troy Guyot’s first acts of friendship was to take me through a hitherto incomprehensible task... we know the steps now, but do you remember that moment learning and how hard it must be for another’s spring dexterous hands that let you be their mirror as you overloop and they freeze as another season lands sloppily around the heavy tread of gratitude, eternal as it gets. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Kevin Spenst Kevin Spenst is the author of Ignite, Jabbering with Bing Bong, and Hearts Amok: a Memoir in Verse (all with Anvil Press), and over a dozen chapbooks including Surrey Sonnets (JackPine Press), Upend (Frog Hollow Press) and an upcoming holm with the Alfred Gustav Press. His most recent writing has appeared in the anthologies Event 50: Collected Notes on Writing and Resonance: Essays on the Craft and Life of Writing. His book launch during the pandemic was featured in a book about creative practices: The Creative Instigator’s Handbook. He teaches creative writing at Vancouver Community College and Simon Fraser University and he lives in Vancouver on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wœ7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territory.