Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Spirits” by Susan Wismer.

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Spirits

By Susan Wismer

My ancestors are made out of madness;

that Cape Breton tune, Strathspey; evictions—

Fuadaichean nan Gàidhea; and tendencies.

Secrets, resentment, red hair.

My ancestors come out in bagpipes; old rubber boots

dancing on worn kitchen floors. The lilt of their language

in shadows, ghostly Gaelic traces lifting

from my sodden English tongue.

Dairy cows, sea air, two pigs, black-faced sheep.

All left behind. Again and again. But what they took

wherever they went, and passed it down—

my stubborn Scottish pride.

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Copyright © Susan Wismer

Previously published in Orbis International Literary Journal.

Susan Wismer is a queer poet who is grateful to live on Treaty 18 territory at the southern shore of Manidoo-gitchigami (Georgian Bay) in Ontario, Canada with two human partners and a very large dog. Recent publications include Hand Shadows (Wintergreen Press, 2024). Hag Dances is coming out with At Bay Press in Spring 2025.

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