“North of Verona, Canoe Lake Road” by Susan Wismer
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “North of Verona, Canoe Lake Road” by Susan Wismer.
North of Verona, Canoe Lake Road
By Susan Wismer
The sharp bleat of the fawn
when Don pushes it, trying to make it
leave the road. The doe standing
close by in the woods, her eyes
on the fawn, Don, the car . . .
The doe doesnโt know
what to do. I can see how
it hurts her
to hear the fawn cry
so loud, so scared, a baby
newborn and too young
to know the road is
a bad place to be.
When he gets back
to the car, Don drives away
so very slow, watching
the fawn and the doe,
with such care.
There is fawn fur on
his hands.
Copyright ยฉ Susan Wismer
Previously published in Hag Dances (At Bay Press, 2025).
Susan Wismer is a queer writer who lives on the southern shore of Manitou-gitchigami (Georgian Bay) in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada. Hand Shadows, co-authored with Michele Green and Suzette Sherman, was published by Wintergreen Press in 2024. Hag Dances came out with At Bay Press in Spring 2025.
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