20
What is a desert? This grips the machete that cuts the cane.
What is smoke? Hoisting the basket of coal to the head.
What are liberties? They pull on the tall boots that protect
………. against snakes.
What is a wage? In the vapour of sulfur fields it brings the sarong tip
………. to his mouth.
Where is the lake? Cut through to the tendons.
How many are killed? They hoist bales of sticks
………. onto their heads.
What is the market? Laying each brick for the canal walls.
What is a home? When the wellhead blasts gas, he holds
………. one in front of his face.
What is the reason? It picks the broad leaves from the bottom
………. of the stem.
What is the reason? It knots the cloth that ties the baby to her back.
[from the series 43 Work Songs Ending In the Palm of Her Hand]
Author’s Bio
SHANE BOOK’s first collection, Ceiling of Sticks, won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize and GLCA New Writers Award. His second, Congotronic, won the Archibald Lampman Award and was shortlisted for the Canadian Authors Association Award, Ottawa Book Award, and Griffin Poetry Prize. He is the 2016-2017 Writer-in-Residence at the University of Calgary.