Mahaila Smith
$5
Put on your shoes or else you need to leave
after Barbara Guest
Stilted bones for your birthday
are an expected guest
present in the evening decanter
poured between me,
the mist and my sister.
Sparrows are my confidantes.
Butterflies are my enemies.
My sister is alright,
she isn’t a butterfly.
My blood is absent
when strangers ask for it
and then pools around my nose
when I am asleep and pretending
to be shadow being shadow
or the moon being the sea
or the sea making phone calls.
Eve was my best friend
before she met her boyfriend.
Now archaeologists trowel after
her tire residue
and reel cosmological alignments
between discarded burger wrappers.
I sit here, with entomological consultants
and drink nettle tea.
published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2024
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
cover artwork/design: Leona Smith
Mahaila Smith (any pronouns) is a young femme writer, living and working on the traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg in Ottawa, Ontario. They are one of the co-editors for The Sprawl Mag. They like learning theory and writing speculative poetry. Their debut chapbook, Claw Machine, was published by Anstruther Press in 2020. Their second chapbook, Water-Kin was published by Metatron Press in 2024. Their novelette in verse, Seed Beetle, is forthcoming with Stelliform Press. You can find more of their work on their website: mahailasmith.ca.
[Mahaila Smith will be launching Enter the Hyperreal on August 10 as part of the above/ground press 31st anniversary reading, alongside Gil McElroy, Carlos A. Pittella, Chris Banks, Pearl Pirie and Shane Rhodes; tickets available here]
To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com
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