<\/p>\n
The car\u2019s headlights wrench open the night,<\/p>\n
trees caught in frenzy,<\/p>\n
wipers slashing across our sight<\/p>\n
straining to push<\/p>\n
the heavy rain aside.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Up ahead a tow truck,<\/p>\n
a man in a yellow raincoat<\/p>\n
waving us on, slowly.<\/p>\n
Commotion below the road.<\/p>\n
A huge poplar snapped<\/p>\n
by the wind.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A blue car with a crumpled<\/p>\n
tin can roof.<\/p>\n
The front end<\/p>\n
suspended on cables<\/p>\n
floating<\/p>\n
above the ditch.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And us unable to help<\/p>\n
or turn around<\/p>\n
on the slick road,<\/p>\n
expecting doom around every bend,<\/p>\n
over every knoll. Thinking<\/p>\n
how do you help the dead<\/p>\n
anyway?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the yard of the haunted house,<\/p>\n
broken winos yell through broken windows.<\/p>\n
Sharp mouths<\/p>\n
and bodies like punctured balloons<\/p>\n
sputtering air,<\/p>\n
zigzagging along the ground<\/p>\n
like they don\u2019t belong anywhere.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Behind the abandoned yard, hedges the height of trees,<\/p>\n
a blaze of pods and yellow petals.<\/p>\n
Where those of us brave enough<\/p>\n
catch bees on sunny Saturdays.<\/p>\n
Snap jar lids over them,<\/p>\n
lock them behind glass,<\/p>\n
holding the sting<\/p>\n
to our ears.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I can still see him, uncle broken man.<\/p>\n
Dark head out the smashed window<\/p>\n
while I keep my own head down,<\/p>\n
keep to the far side of the road,<\/p>\n
do my best to ignore him.<\/p>\n
As he shouts<\/p>\n
\u201cI know you!\u201d<\/p>\n
Shouts his word arrows<\/p>\n
through me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Some tire of the game,<\/p>\n
open the lid of their jar and run for their lives.<\/p>\n
Others forget or neglect and let the busy sounds melt<\/p>\n
inside the glass, while some<\/p>\n
maliciously blow cigarette smoke<\/p>\n
into the punctured top<\/p>\n
to comatose<\/p>\n
their helpless captives.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Evening crowned,<\/p>\n
a headdress of light<\/p>\n
in the tall grass beside the bridge<\/p>\n
flitting above and through us.<\/p>\n
Knowing full well an explanation exists<\/p>\n
and nothing lasts.<\/p>\n
Thoroughly amazed.<\/p>\n
In reckless childhood abandon<\/p>\n
hands cupped<\/p>\n
to hold this magic,<\/p>\n
wear this necessary<\/p>\n
joy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tonight my dream takes me to a black lake<\/p>\n
thick as oil. Fire the horizon.<\/p>\n
Trees shrouded in tattered grey cloth.<\/p>\n
Their skeleton limbs reaching for help.<\/p>\n
No birds, no animals.<\/p>\n
Nothing but the swoosh of a flare up.<\/p>\n
I keep paddling until I awake.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We are giving our son a bath when it happens.<\/p>\n
The house manacled and pulled. The ceiling<\/p>\n
trembling like a prisoner.<\/p>\n
A construction blast without an explosion.<\/p>\n
I scoop our naked boy up in my arms and run.<\/p>\n
Stand beside a neighbour in pink pajamas.<\/p>\n
By the time we\u2019re out the door, 30 seconds later,<\/p>\n
the earthquake is over.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In The Haliburton Highlands Night The car\u2019s headlights wrench open the night, trees caught in frenzy, wipers slashing across our sight straining to push the heavy rain aside. Up ahead a tow truck, a man in a yellow raincoat waving us on, slowly. Commotion below the road. A huge poplar snapped by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":203,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"authorpoetry.php","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-217","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":705,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/217\/revisions\/705"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}