“Sky Bird” by MA|DE
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Sky Bird” by MA|DE.
Sky Bird
By MA|DE
When the clouds took human
shape, we felt indivisible; heaven
and body, ontology as a single plane,
brittle pane. Arms out, embracing balance.
When the clouds looked like
lambs, we laid down our heads.
The cabin blanketed us in filtered air,
a leisurely middle space that transcended
the clamour of cities, the buzz of insects.
The double-bind of moving forward
while sitting still sent us daydreaming,
as short-lived as contrails scattered
on a path across the chameleon blue.
We coasted past imperceptible longitudes
and borderlines, riding the edge of
the lower stratosphere. Between the rest
of our lives and where we are now —
this is the distance we always hoped for.
Copyright © MA|DE
Previously published in ZZOO (Palimpsest Press, 2025).
MA|DE (est. 2018) is a collaborative writing entity co-founded by Mark Laliberte and Jade Wallace. MA|DE is the author of 4 chapbooks, including the bpNichol Award-shortlisted A Trip to the ZZOO from Collusion Books. MA|DE’s first full-length poetry collection, ZZOO, came out with Palimpsest Press in early 2025.
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