“There is a smell after terror” by gillian harding-russell
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “There is a smell after terror” by gillian harding-russell.
There is a smell after terror
By gillian harding-russell
When the dog woke
in the black of
night with a jolt,
skittered on curled
tense toenails across
the room and back, dropped
to the floor โ lightning struck
by what meteor of dream,
mind-neurons as stars
seized in a personal apocalypse
of frothing jaw, iron-clamped
over colliding feet that covered
galaxies on his Sirius side
and there was a rank sweet
scent, poignant and distinct
after the electric and shock
even as saliva and slime
permeated my hands and hair
we laved the exhausted dog
with soothing wet flannel, his
great dog heart still punching
to escape his body, an alien
elixir lifting into the air
in a chemical language
I had just one letter for
from an alphabet
of my own megrim
with their electrifying fireworks
instant dread and high alarm
though I could not yet comprehend
what word in what language
that single shared character
might be part ofโฆ
Copyright ยฉ gillian harding-russell
A poet, editor and reviewer, gillian harding-russell has published five poetry collections. The Alfred Gustav Press will publish a chapbook, A Handle on Things in the summer of 2026. And a new collection Lift the Ear of a Nautilus/ to the flesh of your own ear (tentative title) has been accepted for publication by Turnstone Press (April. 2026). Her work has been published widely in literary journals across Canada.
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