Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Oliver” by Dominik Parisien.

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Oliver

By Dominic Parisien

I learned jealousy
reading of a boy who kissed
a wall.

Oliver kissed here
scribbled on the brick.
I knew, then, love was breathing

yourself into another;
how boys feared getting caught
losing themselves through their lips.

And here was Oliver,
who could have carried me
with him forever,

giving himself away
to a red brick wall.

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Copyright © Dominik Parisien

Previously published in Plenitude Magazine.

Dominik Parisien is a disabled, bisexual French Canadian. He is the author of the poetry collection Side Effects May Include Strangers (2020), and a forthcoming memoir. His recent writing can be found in Arc Poetry Magazine, Riddle Fence, Augur Magazine, and Plenitude. Dominik lives in Ottawa.

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