A Name

In the red-dust canyon goes a figure with a shadow and a skull-faced dog
in the morning in the cold when the sun has lit the rocks
like hollow frozen fire, delivered nothing to the reptiles curled and huddled
in the desert’s million unseen otherworlds, forgetting overnight there is
a sun, there is, what it can do other than make the dirt glow, here’s the lesson,
heed the lizards, the cold thousands, remember the figure, name the skull-faced dog.

What Will Happen When You Flee from the Woods into the Cabin

is there is an outside chance you might make it through the night but you will not make it alone. Outside, it is hard to live. You should not be inside alone by yourself. There’s something outside snuffing at the doorframe and scratching at the welcome mat and it is hard to live outside, as I said. There is a chance you might make it, an outside chance. You might as well tidy up, as I said. You might as well let it in.

Meghan Kemp-Gee lives somewhere between Vancouver and Fredericton, where she is a PhD student at UNB. She writes poetry, comics, and scripts of all kinds. Her debut poetry collection, The Animal in the Room, is forthcoming from Coach House Books in Spring 2023. She also teaches composition and co-created Contested Strip, the world’s best comic about ultimate frisbee. You can find her on Twitter @MadMollGreen.

Published August 15 2022