“The Ritual” by Oneal Walters
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “The Ritual” by Oneal Walters.
The Ritual
By Oneal Walters
Three white bowls
of vegetable soup
steaming on the circular table.
Two spoons.
Two glasses of water.
A horde of flies
she fans away.
On the stove:
fresh food baking,
old food burning.
Timer reads 3:00.
The living-room clock insists
6:00 p.m.
She opens the oak-stained counter.
Two cereal boxes stare back,
both with one hand-full of food.
She sits.
Copyright ยฉ Oneal Walters
Oneal Walters writes character-driven psychological fiction in close third person, often shaped in verse. His work explores control, recognition, and the quiet pressures inside domestic and moral life, favoring restraint over explanation and tension over resolution. He is the author of The Empty Couple, a psychological thriller in verse that reached #1 in Amazonโs Domestic Relations category, and the creator of Chosen, an ongoing episodic psychological narrative published through The Blue Snowsuit. His writing trusts the reader to sit with discomfort rather than be guided toward closure. Walters holds a BA in Film Studies from York University and a Communications Certificate from George Brown College. He lives in Brantford, Ontario.
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