Skip to content
poets.ca circle logo black transparent

League of Canadian Poets

  • About
  • Programs & Services
  • Awards & Contests
  • Microgrants & Bursaries
  • Poetry Community
  • Join
  • Support the LCP
×
  • About
  • Programs & Services
  • Awards & Contests
  • Microgrants & Bursaries
  • Poetry Community
  • Join
  • Support the LCP

Nest-Body by Erin Vance

By League of Canadian Poets | January 5, 2022

Poem name: Nest-Body Poet name: Erin Vance Poem begins: When she comes in through the hotel window, moths flock to her. They flutter against her shoulders, sip on her breasts, drawing out honey with their eyes. The wildflowers creep up her legs. There are flat stones under her feet, a strange hand on her back. His fingers are rough from running through her, fingering the bark on her chest.   She runs farther each day, curses further each day  he forces her to run with babies clutching her lungs till she dies.   With her sisters she hangs naked  from the roof-beams of ill-intentioned men. Blood-soaked, their shadows strike corvus across the ground.   Men flock to her. When she comes in through the chimney, they rip her hair from her head  with their teeth, suck and suck on her empty breasts. She crushes them in their sleep, heels forced into eye sockets.   Feel them.  End of Poem.  Credits: Copyright © Erin Vance Forthcoming in A History of Touch, (Guernica Editions, 2022) Erin Emily Ann Vance is the author of the novel Advice for Taxidermists and Amateur Beekeepers (Stonehouse Publishing 2019), and the poetry collection A History of Touching (Guernica Editions 2022), as well as six chapbooks of poetry. Vance was a recipient of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Young Artist Prize in 2017 (nominated by Aritha van Herk) and a finalist for the 2018 Alberta Magazine Awards for her short story “All the Pretty Bones.” She lives in rural Alberta with her partner and dog.

Posted in Poetry Pause
Support poets and poetry in Canada. Donate today.

Established in 1966, the League of Canadian Poets is a National Arts Service Organization dedicated to supporting poets, building poetic communities, supporting inclusive and equitable free expression, and promoting Canadian poets and poetry. 

Site Links

  • About
  • Programs & Services
  • Awards & Contests
  • Microgrants & Bursaries
  • Poetry Community
  • Join
  • Support the LCP
Member Hub

Get In Touch!

  • League of Canadian Poets
    C/O Centre for Social Innovation
    720 Bathurst St
    Toronto ON
    M5S 2R4
     

  • (416) 504-1657

  • [email protected]

  • The League of Canadian Poets operates remotely; in-person office hours are by appointment only. 

"Poetry means having the courage to forage the depthsof what makes & unmakes us."

–Adebe DeRango-Adem, Author of Vox Humana, 2023 Raymond Souster Award Winner

Donate Today
Poetry needs superheroes. A donation to the League of Canadian Poets supports poets and poetry from coast to coast.

The office of the League of Canadian Poets is situated in the land of Tkaronto which is the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

Footer-logos-resized-new

© 2023 League of Canadian Poets

GoDaddy Web Design
Scroll To Top