Creature Comforts by Adrienne Stevenson

August 18, 2023
Poem title: Creature Comforts Poet name: Adrienne Stevenson Poem: I have requested the unicorn in my closet to refrain from kicking down the door. The noise disturbs my neighbours and is difficult to explain to anyone whose scope is limited to the mundane. The naiad in my shower agrees completely, and suggests I feed it on truffles and ice lilies, although where in this benighted city will I find such exotic delicacies? Surely not at Costco, or even the local market. The troll in the garden remains mute, quite unlike its Internet cousins. It guards my plot of rare poisons, kept in case I am required to defend myself against those who would steal my hoard. My neighbours do not notice my nature. They believe that the smoke that issues from my chimney, even in summer, is merely a vagary of an elderly eccentric, my dragon scales an odd skin condition. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Adrienne Stevenson Previously published in Bywords, April 2020. Adrienne Stevenson lives in Ottawa, Canada, on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg People. A retired forensic scientist, she writes poetry and prose. Her poetry has appeared in over fifty print and online journals and anthologies in Canada, USA, UK, Europe, India, and Australia. She is a member of two active local poetry workshops and a fiction critique group, and is on the board of her neighbourhood community association. Her stories have won or placed in short story contests of Capital Crime Writers and the Canadian Authors Association-National Capital Region, with two published in Byline and one in Mystery Magazine. Several non-fiction articles have appeared in Byline and Anglo-Celtic Roots. She has completed and is querying an historical novel, Mirrors & Smoke. When not writing, Adrienne tends a large garden, reads voraciously, and procrastinates playing several musical instruments.