Saturday, October 1, 2011

Nishkaadiziwinequai

I suspect she goes
from place to place
broken smile
and angry faced
These pink-necked ghosts
get pinker still
And she sees through
their Trickster will
But Shogonosh just surfs the net
Conference cake his sole regret
His brunette nymph then calculates
In fifteen-minute billing rates
the price of all
Best Practices

A promise here, a promise there
and treaties, treaties everywhere
but not a drop to drink
or eat
empty ears and a token seat
And still she brings a cedar rose
A giveaway as widow’s clothes
a growing tree in a shrinking land
Her baby’s hand
a talisman


[Image: Cedar by Emily Carr, from the Vancouver Art Gallery]
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5 comments:

  1. Laurie LeclairNovember 29, 2011 at 3:47 PM

    Posted to dVerse Poets: http://dversepoets.com/2011/11/29/openlinknight-week-20/

    ReplyDelete
  2. hedgewitchNovember 29, 2011 at 7:09 PM

    Very intricate and pleasing to read; the rhyme falls just right to lead the reader to the next line naturally while still grappling with the images in the last. Dark satire and an undertone of Native American myth make the dish complete to a shade.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Laurie LeclairNovember 29, 2011 at 7:12 PM

    Many thanks to Hedgewitch. I don't write poetry very often. This one just came to me on my way back from a Land Claims conference in Quebec City.
    Cheers
    L.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Brian MillerNovember 29, 2011 at 7:25 PM

    this is rather haunting to me...the calculation in the billing rates...its the cadence of this that i think is as haunting as what it contains...

    ReplyDelete
  5. poets rallyDecember 1, 2011 at 2:40 PM

    creepy.

    ReplyDelete