2/20/2021 POETRY: BREN SIMMERSIF SATURDAY, AN EMPTY PARKING LOT If the horse fence was split-rail and I had an apple in my hand. If mom and pop grocery stores still had their ‘and.’ If I could lift out of biography into sand and compost, hand-mixed and laid in low spots in the yard. If the knock at the door was a parcel instead of a politician, if we built each day the way a spider shuttles a web, warp of anchor threads, weft of hours to hammock in. If woodstoves, whiskey, and new friends. If barefooted, weeding garden beds. If cold frames greened fall plates. If boards that shudder in gale winds held another eighty years, if Canada warms at twice the rate of other countries. If we stopped taking airplanes we’d never see our families again. If we could ride air currents with crows fingers feathered, if the small stones of deer tracks foretold the future. If we weren’t afraid. If babies were born healthy. If this body was a bubble wand held open to wind. Bren Simmers’ first book of non-fiction, Pivot Point (Gaspereau Press, 2019), is a lyrical account of a nine-day wilderness canoe journey. She is also the author of three books of poetry: If, When (Gaspereau Press, 2021), Hastings-Sunrise (Nightwood Editions, 2015), which was a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award, and Night Gears (Wolsak & Wynn, 2010). A lifelong west coaster, she now lives on PEI.
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