Poetry

Andrew Small photo

By

Penn Kemp

Sunlit Might Seem Forever

Earth (quake)

Air (borne)

Water (high)

Fire (wild)

All at Once

Commiserate

Compassion

Condolence

Console

Days of Awe and Hurricane

and the Season’s just begun

The autumn equinox falls this year mid-

afternoon in golden light, light suspended

over the bowl of time, suspended as mind

opens to a possibility of expanse, of hope

thought stupid— hope beyond thought, held

in the frame of wider events set spinning.

A momentary equilibrium held like breath

in the balance. A turning point we hold as

we careen toward winter, a turning point to

recall while Trump and cohorts bluster on.

Stillness does not last beyond a moment.

The radio calls for a Humidex over Forty.

Our family of goldfinch flock to goldenrod,

twittering, tweeting, chittering at their feast.

Prince Harry breezes through Toronto traffic,

to celebrate Invictus, all winners out of hiding.

Canada’s “a work in progress,” claims the PM.

Words do not replace realities. Mind the gap.

Mistaken identity and charges dropped but now

a bewildered refugee requires protective custody.

What we know we cannot say. What we don’t

know fills the airwaves, as news ongoing, old.

Penn Kemp

Penn Kemp is an activist Canadian poet, playwright and editor.  Her latest works are two plays celebrating local hero and explorer, Teresa Harris, produced in 2017 and published by Playwrights Guild of Canada. Recent books include Barbaric Cultural Practice (quattrobooks.ca/books/barbaric-cultural-practice/) and two anthologies edited, Women and Multimedia and Performing Women (http://poets.ca/feministcaucus/livingarchives/). See www.pennkemp.weebly.com.