We hold
the slender threads we find,
spin and triple-twine them ––
mitten strings
from the abandoned nurseries,
tails of ditched kites,
cement-stayed vines.
We take comfort.
We make comforters
of thrift store rags
and bags of broken stone.
Yet we are doubters, we are debtors
and the silent bs
sting our barren arms.
Header photograph © Asher.
Laurie Koensgen lives in Ottawa, Canada, where she advocates for the arts and teaches creative writing to middle school students. Her poems have appeared in Arc Poetry Magazine, Literary Review of Canada, In/Words, Barren Magazine, Juniper: A Poetry Journal, Kissing Dynamite, Black Bough Poetry, Re-side and elsewhere. She was shortlisted for The Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Award for Poetry 2018, and recently received Honourable Mentions in Arc’s Diana Brebner Prize and The New Quarterly’s Occasional Verse Contest.
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