(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. 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.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
The Ekphrastic Review
COOKIES/PRIVACY
This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies. Opt Out of CookiesJoin us: Facebook and Bluesky
June 2025
|