Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. This June, Poetry Pause celebrates Indigenous and LGBTQI2S+ poets for Indigenous History Month and Pride Month! Read “Love is for the young but” by Atma Frans.

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Love is for the young but

By Atma Frans

the last bell

has rung neither

of us ready

for home we stay

in the amber time

trickles faster

faraway a pub

closes we kiss

sink into green

silence somewhere

an organ echoes

on cobbles brick

houses lean

into darkness

at dawn

we’ll have

fingers of fog

somewhere

the internet dies

a faraway beat

your heart

in my palm

light flickers

somewhere

far away

a war

your hand in my hair

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Copyright © Atma Frans

Atma Frans lives on the beautiful, unceded territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh people in Gibsons, B.C. Her poetry has been widely published in literary magazines in Canada and the U.K., has won contests, and was nominated for the National Magazine Award. In her writing, Atma searches for the voice beneath her personas: woman, mother, trauma survivor, queer, teacher, artist.

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