Roxane Desjardins

Calm

I hope to be absolved. I’m making a place for myself in the gutter. All images exist. I shed sizes and formats. I cry over empty holes. I’m ashamed from above. My body quivers. I’ve envied death. There are colours for the months. The yellow ones worry me. At night, I embrace my knot. Read more →
David Ly

Ok, Cupid. Where’d You Go?

Chatting begins and doesn’t seem to go anywhere in particular. Conversation moves from people never being prepared for snow in a city so cold already with how we treat each other on public transit, to a sci-fi thriller about a comet with a green tail passing through the sky, while a dinner party occurs and the guests start disappearing one by one.
Virginia Konchan

Two Poems

Because the veil was lifted. Because the dog has rabies. Because the soul sleepwalks into a mirror and our desire is increased by difficulty. Because disappointment is an obstacle, like longing, like fate. Because I died young and beautiful. Because I will not die young and beautiful. Read more →
Yelibert Cruz

Landfill

When I was a little girl, littered with scrapes on my knees and bruises on my arms from falling off the monkey bars, my parents would take me back. Once a year I set foot on Venezuelan soil where people had my colour skin and the streets were littered with the pungent perfume of plastic bag pointillism. A landfill has never been so beautiful. I used to imagine I lived in one. Read more →
Gail Scott

Sepia

scott____ 9780889224155_cover_coverbookpage-v2 Sir. You can on-ly put ca-na-dien monee in that machine. No sir. No foreign objects nor foreign monee in that macheen. It’s an infraction, you see. The guard’s finger runs tight under the small print. The wooden squirrels in the rafters are si-lent. The Black tourist descends the steps with an astonished stare toward the tele- scope aimed at the city skyscrapers. Read more →