“Wildflower” by Catherine Graham
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Wildflower” by Catherine Graham.
Wildflower
By Catherine Graham
in memory of Bruce Gillingham, 1929-2019
The condo took him away
from his garden. Pots
on the balcony, not the same.
By the lake, a field with few
wildflowers called to him.
He drove to where the city
kept spreading—holes where
other condos would rise.
Ox-eye daisy, Queen Anne’s lace,
Butter and eggs, chicory—
he transplanted his finds along
the waiting edges. Fox, skunk
and rabbit watched, but not
the passersby as he dug more holes
to root the living. Growth took.
So he planted seeds, nothing invasive,
just more of the already there to richen
texture and colour. Some milkweed
to coax monarchs back. I see
him—tending, tamping, close
to ninety, down on his knees.
Copyright © Catherine Graham
Previously published in Put Flowers Around Us and Pretend We’re Dead: New and Selected Poems (Wolsak and Wynn / Buckrider Books 2023).
Catherine Graham’s book Æther: An Out-of-Body Lyric, was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award, Toronto Book Award, and won the Fred Kerner Book Award. The Celery Forest was named a CBC Best Book of the Year and was a finalist for the Fred Cogswell Award for Poetry. She teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto where she won an Excellence in Teaching Award, leads the TIFA Book Club and co-hosts The Hummingbird Podcast. www.catherinegraham.com @catgrahampoet
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