Forks by Carol L. Mackay

February 22, 2022
Poem name: Forks Poet name: Carol L Mackay Poem begins: We are five-tined: a grass rake brought indoors. We plant ourselves barefoot, against the swallowing wall beneath Blue Boy and Pinkie -- frames too small for a twelve-foot sky and a stubble rug. Pole light in the corner casts portraits in profile. We are immigrants still suffering too much space. These Alberta years have been cut down, grown again and again, and now the corners are bursting with more mass than light. Our shoes sink into deep pile, carpet over carpet. There are seafood forks at our dinner plates. Our progeny grows taller assured of a more proportionate sky. End of poem. Credits: Copyright © Carol L. MacKay Previously published in Prairie Journal (#51, October 2008) and in Alberta Views Magazine (June 2015). Carol L. MacKay’s recent poetry appearances include the 2020 Poem in Your Pocket Day postcard project from the League of Canadian Poets, and Sheri-D Wilson’s Frontenac House anthology: YYC Pop: Portraits of People. She received the 2020 Society of Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators (SCBWI) Magazine Merit Award for Poetry. Carol lives in Qualicum Beach, BC.