POETRY: JODY CHAN

VANCOUVER SEAWALL, THIRD BENCH FROM THE WATER 
 
let there be a word for how it feels      to stand
waist-deep in your tide         let it be queer    
as in landfall      as in the constellation of sand on
a lover’s elbow or the lie      that this land could be
owned or queer      as in the way time arranges
the earth    into wrinkles the mountain     knows
no monument can stand longer than the mountain    
already has    let there be language for the unceded
shore yielding    pieces of itself to the outbound
ocean     call it love    without ownership call it
the skin between    my hands and your sand and
her collarbone unpinned   call it queer as in
grace comes   from letting go of what was
never ours         to keep in the first place



Previously published in haunt, Damaged Goods Press (2018).

Jody Chan is a writer, drummer, organizer, and politicized healer based in Toronto. They are the author of haunt (Damaged Goods Press), all our futures (PANK), and sick, winner of the 2018 St. Lawrence Book Award. They can be found online at https://www.jodychan.com/ and offline in bookstores or dog parks.