Tuesday poem #505 : Isla McLaughlin : montage

 

 

wet nails clothesline warm hands clementines baby photos bristol board aisle seat land mines missed calls no peace puppy love quiet please bagpipes blonde guys motorbike steak pies whiplash loud sneeze beachfront bruised knees chocolate chip pancakes fake tans court case fire hall spotty lung drove away dry tongue bumper sticker seashell empty highway unwell vyvanse hate regret eldest daughter marionette fruit bowl blue fumes old soul certain doom dino-egg oat milk nipples out that dilf binge eat chia seeds diagnosis ted reeve granda go train lobotomy hailing rain

 

 

 

 

 

Isla McLaughlin is a writer and friend. The Co-Founder and Creative Director of Block Party Magazine and Press is an undergraduate student enrolled in Creative Writing and Arts & Media Management at the University of Toronto Scarborough. In August 2022, her chapbook, girl, online, was published with Gap Riot Press, and she has been published previously for poetry and prose in several places online and in-print. She likes Cheaper by the Dozen 2, vintage overalls, and curating Spotify playlists.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan

Tuesday poem #504 : Ori Fienberg : The Spirit Lifts Us

 

My beverage depot wants to save me
money on my favorite spirits, and I thank
them, then agonize over choosing favorites. 

Some days it’s so hard to rise I can barely
bring myself to place the right offerings by
my favorite shrines. Hallway eucalyptus, 

burnt toast offering in the kitchen, daily
shower squeegee strokes, and the wads
of fragrant cinnamon gum gently smoothed 

beneath a train station seat; next, standing
in prayer, left hand clenching rubber, the right
balancing in air in unison with the supplicant 

commuters, on our way to our sacred jobs
or skipping work to thank each open flower
at the Botanic Garden, despite my allergies, 

or because of them, sneezing vigorously,
so when nurturing volunteers pat the mulch
by roses and say, “Bless You”, I can share.

 

 

 

 

Ori Fienberg is the author of Old Habits, New Markets (elsewhere press, 2021). His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in venues including the Cincinnati Review, the Dallas Review, Essay Daily, Heavy Feather Review, Obliterat, Pank, Sixth Finch, and Subtropics. Ori teaches poetry writing for Northeastern University’s College of Professional Studies. Read more at orifienberg.com and follow @ArtfulHerring for poetry and political tweets.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan

 

Tuesday poem #503 : Heather Cadsby : I would love to live in Leeds

 

 

So much going on there. Artists and poets daily. Years ago Desmond and Marion came to Canada. I got to be friends with Marion. She had studied Anglo-Saxon syntax at the University of Leeds. There was an intern on the TV show Bones, Mr. Nigel-Murray, who said he had several science degrees from there. The Americans on that show rolled their eyes. Probably had never heard of the place. The Anglo-Irish population could invite me to join. I’d have to get a new accent. Everyone would love me. I would be the hick from the colonies. I really don’t know much about England. Once I went to Newfoundland. Something about Vikings. That might count. They have swifts in Leeds too. But different. Theirs come from West Africa. I wouldn’t care. Sometimes a cigar bird is just a cigar bird. Ha. Ha. They would love my sense of humour in Leeds. I’m working on understanding their words like bollocks and doolally. Knickers I know. Would mine do? Perhaps they don’t bother with any in Leeds. I have a lot of research to do. Before I pack my bag.

 

 

 

 

 

Heather Cadsby is the author of five books of poetry. The most recent is Standing in the Flock of Connections (Brick Books, 2018). In the 1980s along with Maria Jacobs she produced the monthly periodical Poetry Toronto and founded the press Wolsak and Wynn. In recent years she has served as a director of The Art Bar Poetry Series.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan