Luann Hiebert
MATINS
giggle-gurgle bird bath prattle wet sunsongs stir my ruminations this morning glory startles garden bee & boozy flies bizzzz buzzz zzuzzzz neighbour’s weed whacker thwacks her dog barks & trees a squirrel day breaks in diapasons dogged queries & niggling worries skirrrr dashed by today’s antiphon gurgle whirrr green canticles swirl round pine & fir sound poems ear marked
JACK
jack be nimble jack be slick jack bait her hook line & sink her where have you been dear jack out fishing fond of fish drowning in air liquid sky left at bay her day-eyes darken agape you hid the hook bit her lips pierced with desire gold-green wall-eyes jack your sun-flecked scales & opal ribs a lure piked to whet & choke by hook & by crook your free-fishing style will soon have you hooked & the fish to fry jack will be you
SOME ANTICS
you (plural) en counter some antics dis a sem bled dis or dered sound seeds grow wild words clench dis figured in fections a de clension failure lang u(s)age a rime in crustation in festation you (plural) sink in to sea un knowingly clutch at limit less spaces meaning less sent tenses muscles taut too many semi odd tics & err attic antiques you (plural) decline O a poetic body to die for a kiss you (singular) & me O the inflection point of contact two arcs convex&concave O-Oh a converse relation a conjoined elation dis eased rhythms tum tumble over reason O ecstatic conjunctions you&me
YOU HAVE CANCER
skin slouches
living stones
propagate under
tear-pressure
you have cancer
dread locks
body cells
darken blood
prey silently
it takes guts
to sky-walk
lines cast out
in spades
you have cancer
organ grinders
play tone
on bone de-
compose vitals
press breath
less beneath
sweat-soaked
bed sheets
you have cancer
no morphemes
strong enough
to hold your
morphine dreams
praying for mor-
phallaxis there’s
no relaxant or
palliate
you have cancer
Luann Hiebert is a PhD candidate studying Canadian poetry at the University of Manitoba. She teaches English Literature courses as an adjunct professor at Providence University College and Steinbach Bible College. Her debut poetry collection What Lies Behind (Turnstone Press) is shortlisted for two 2015 Manitoba Book Awards: the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book and the Lansdowne Prize for Poetry. Luann’s poems appear in literary journals including The Society, Rhubarb, and Prairie Fire’s Electric City 2.
Great play with words and sounds.