CONSPIRACY THEORY a circle of reason / a proof that cannot be proved or disproved / a mad mixture / a template for order / cast, shaped, readymade and launched / requires immediate response (response must have no minor errors) / a distrust, a witch hunt, an elaborate dance / behind the scenes / eyewitness […]
Antoine Janot | from PRESENCES
Author’s Bio Antoine Janot is a young artist living between Paris and Montreal, exploring different mediums such as photography, painting, cinema, and literature. After directing several experimental short films, he is now working on his first feature movie. He also published an essay, various novels and two poetry anthologies.
gary lundy | YOU WILL MISS THE ARBITRARY
YOU WILL MISS THE ARBITRARY collisions of random exchanges they shuffle along sidewalks glazed in ice a car rolls circles moves too fast to avoid the billboard new high price hotel once last night we rolled over and out of bed turning our phone off smooth pits and curves an apple picked earlier in […]
Michael Trussler | AS UNNOTICED AS POSSIBLE, 2020 Vallum Award for Poetry Honourable Mention
AS UNNOTICED AS POSSIBLE for Lucy, our original mother There’s almost always two of them: mother and (or mother with) her child up against a tilting shoulder, a breast about to tire and four separate ………………..hands ………….each gathering …………….its own task …………….each finger …………an annunciation ……………….of trust. Care. And this particular pair, an […]
Josh Feit | LINGER FACTOR, 2020 Vallum Award for Poetry Honourable Mention
LINGER FACTOR The Department of Transportation sidewalk study ranked my neighborhood 15 points above average. A 24% linger factor. My neighborhood would score even higher if the DOT surveyed at night when youth appear in clinamen lines. The study found this: People who linger are ……….talking to other people, or buying sandwiches, …………….…………….…………….…………….…………….using […]
Esther Johnson | WE LOST AHMAUD, 2020 Vallum Award for Poetry Honourable Mention
WE LOST AHMAUD we lost ahmaud i cried to my momma the night we lost ahmaud it’s unfair unjust uncivil it’s a modern day genocide the victims are my people why can’t we run in peace? we lost juice i cried to my daddy the night we lost juice when they made us feel lesser […]
Matt Pasca | VIRGA
VIRGA There is a kind of rain that never hits the ground never collects in fat pools to reveal your flaws wriggling like worms: the ex-wife, misplaced money, lost friendships strung like shark teeth on a thread. Do not confuse this rain with the kind pelting the hosta patch, deck chairs & bike chains, the […]
Denise Raike | MID-ATLANTIC
MID-ATLANTIC On hearing Sylvia Plath’s recorded reading of Daddy— her voice, vowels stretched in opposing directions, threatening to snap—you find yourself fluid in her Mid-Atlantic tones, gasping. When she confesses she has killed him, though dead already, you believe her, and almost yearn for the imagined murders of your own childhood, the ache of not […]
Jason Santerre | WHAT IT IS
WHAT IT IS It’s the sky in your mouth a Saskatchewan summer s t r e t c h e d pulled taut across infinity back to some faceless city where you hear voices in the walls more than one victim in hiding down the hall, an injured bird squawking helpless then held […]