Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Care of Small Poems by Courtney Bates-Hardy.

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Care of Small Poems

By Courtney Bates-Hardy

Wash the earth, 

let it run rust 

with ink, then clear.  

Palpate for pebbles 

embedded, remove 

with tweezers. 

Bandage slowly, align 

the edges evenly, 

press gently.  

Make it invisible, 

ignore the itch 

to probe further. 

Keep it cool and dry: 

forget, then 

let it breathe.  

Soon, you are remade: 

one line 

across your skin. 

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Copyright © Courtney Bates-Hardy

First appeared in Poetry Pause on September 24, 2020.

Courtney Bates-Hardy is the author of Anatomical Venus (Radiant Press, 2024), House of Mystery (2016) and a chapbook, Sea Foam (JackPine Press, 2013). Her poems have been published in Best Canadian Poetry, Vallum, EVENT, and others. She is queer, disabled, and one-third of a writing group called The Pain Poets.

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