if life is a bird by Moni Brar

July 13, 2023
Poem title: if life is a bird Poet name: Moni Brar Poem: my father, magpie cunning in soft-bodied collusion stark black, abysmal white no room for grey my mother, peacock iridescent breast poised for self-inflicted arrow feathers shuddering colours and I, cardinal hidden in hedgerows with blackened mouth crest rising at first sign of danger End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Moni Brar Previously published in The New Quarterly, (Issue 162, Spring 2022, p. 55). Moni Brar was born in rural India. She has multiple nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net and was the recipient of the 2022 Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal, the 2022 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award, and The Fiddlehead’s 2022 Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize. A finalist for the Montreal International Poetry Prize and the recipient of writing prizes from PRISM, Grain, Room, and The Ex-Puritan, her creative work has appeared in Best Canadian Poetry, The Literary Review of Canada, Hobart, and Passages North. She is an alum of Tin House, The Banff Centre, and The Humber School for Writers and believes art contains the possibility of healing.