Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “In the morning” by David Yerex Williamson, part of the League’s Fresh Voices program.

---

In the morning

By David Yerex Williamson

Empty red shoes bide by a cracked yellow door
toes pointed together.
Late last evening she danced, once
with the boy from the corner shop.
In a pub she goes to
when the day’s sentence runs out.
She let his hands stray a little.
Her umbrella rests beside the leather hat box.
It is dry.
In the tarnished pewter bowl on the sill
half a cigarette smudged in copper, cold.
Beside, a chipped tumbler
a dried ring of rye remains.
Under the stool by the cracked yellow door
where she sits sometimes
after an evening dance (and stray hands)
a matchbook tilts
on its edges, folded, discarded perhaps
by the boy from the corner shop.
“The Magpie’s Bistro.”
Like old smoke of a bad night
half the words of a hymn for her flutter
against the pane.
Whispered wings pining for a shadow
under the street lamp
beside the corner shop
she imagines
all the missing parts

---

Copyright © David Yerex Williamson

David Yerex Williamson lives in northern Manitoba (aski Inniwak). His work has appeared in FreeFall, The Dalhousie Review, The Antigonish Review, Prairie Fire, The New Quarterly and others. His poetry collection, Through Disassembled Houses of Perfect Stones, (At Bay Press, 2022), was shortlisted for a Manitoba Book Award. He recently placed in SubTerrain’s Lush Triumphant Poetry contest and his eight poem suite will appear in their Spring, 2026 issue. David is owned by three dogs.

Fresh Voices is a publication and workshop program created by and for the League’s associate members, curated and edited by Erin Vance.

---

Subscribe to Poetry Pause, or support Poetry Pause with a donation today!

---