(In Canada), by Devon Balwit

Doubtful Insight, by Greg Curnoe (Canada) 1987.

(In Canada)

What if daily life is boring, and I can’t muster 
the enthusiasm to power my lung-bellows?

Or if everyone else is dun, and only I remain, 
naked before predators? Or what if I am not 

(aware) (interesting) (interested), lost in soughing
branches all around, conviviality sweeping past 

like a wave, me mud-buried? Or if the font never 
changes, either endless capitals or 12-point 

Times New Roman, a monotony as fearsome 
as heaven? Or the paper is ruled, trapping me 

between parallels, or the palette off-putting, as in
the antechamber of an obscure government office?

Or what if, despite all opportunity, I croak the 
same questions, the most plaintive night peeper?

Devon Balwit

This poem was written for the surprise challenge, ekphrastic poetry in response to Canadian art.
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Devon Balwit writes in Portland, OR. She has five chapbooks out or forthcoming: How the Blessed Travel (Maverick Duck Press); Forms Most Marvelous (dancing girl press); In Front of the Elements (Grey Borders Books), Where You Were Going Never Was (Grey Borders Books); and The Bow Must Bear the Brunt (Red Flag Poetry). More of her individual poems can be found here as well as in The Cincinnati Review, The Stillwater Review, Red Earth Review, The Inflectionist; Glass: A Journal of Poetry; Noble Gas Quarterly; Muse A/Journal, and more.