A published poem with On Spec

On Spec is going to run one of my poems – “Letter to a Brother on a Generation Ship”. I’m thrilled this poem has been published. It contains a line I’m particularly fond of about a “buckshot prince”. I’ll post again when it’s live. In the meantime, take some time to check out On Spec, they’re a bastion of Canadian sci-fi. I’ve been a reader and a fan for some time and I’m all jazzed up about this one.

“Letter to a Brother…” is a bit of a bleak poem, so to counteract the bleakness I’ve come up with a happy little poem for you, based on actual events:

ODE TO A HUMMINGBIRD ASSAULTED BY THE WIND

The weather flexes glass with funhouse horror,
Making sails of my doubleglazing.
Bathvents howl with the storm’s impatience.

A blackstreak across my peripherals
Becomes a hummingbird,
Clinging to a patio light lifeline.

Wildlife so quck, it hasn’t time to be
Two
Separate
Words.

It faces me,
Black dome eyes taking in my heavylipped amazement,
My slumpshouldered,
luxurycruiseliner,
coucho-relaxo repose,
And I feel its preyinstinct terror for an instant,
And bear witness to it’s deathstruggle.

Holdfast you needle faced buccaneer!

Fishscale feathers of ruby and emerald enchantment lift
With the gale’s crosscuts.
Hypodermic bones threaten to cracksnap.
But the glassgrip keeps
And the thrumdot life rides
The galloping galerip out –
A castaway on a buoy,

Before I blink and it’s gone.