JET LAG
It’s not the time zones.
I eat at the right times.
Suffer insomnia
at the right times.
Am depressed
and lively
in keeping with past patterns.
It’s that, in the morning,
I am alone in a different place.
Haven’t re-habituated
to the compromises yet.
What needs to be given up
to have a cup of tea.
The What comes next?
is different here.
Which window
offers light?
What will I do with my mind
in the time I have
before anyone comes?
Author’s Bio
Michelle Poirier Brown is a Cree Métis poet from Manitoba, living in Lekwungen territory (Victoria, BC). Her poem “Wake,” published in PRISM international’s “Dreams” issue, won the Earle Birney Prize. Other poetry has appeared in CV2, Grain, and the anthologies Dis(s)ent and Sweet Water: Poems for the Watersheds.