october 27
from a day book

The start of losing her / was knowing what could be missed:
-- Shane Rhodes

the name for what is left behind,
the curls in my hair if cut too short

what the weight will not hold

my daughters, also, too curly
for its own abundance

on muggy days, when we both
curse our hair from wherever

we are, & she my name too,
the one who gave it to her

as a body never wants
what it already has: spending how much

to get straightened, cut
& coloured

my daughter in red; where we
have come too say, her mother

& i, isnt that just
so much like her

she, who was once so much smaller

she, who was once just us
combined

"April 25, 2004"
(from a day book, a work-in-progress)

Talking to each other they found an idle thing.
That could be an ideal thing.
-- Kenneth Koch

in an applied poetic, as derek says,
driving badlands in turn in turn

in idle talk

south as south, discontinued braces
didnt think to breathe

as a disaster warns, launching
back into himself

a typographical relay

a hallway, reading outward
into two few walls

mustang vs. pinto

(but not the real me)

he asks, how is your daughter, how
is your daughter, how

are your three years, here

a pink jill elephantine, a possibility
of herself

five four radiates
a presence

says, never spend your nights

says, maybe theres still room for a small
planned garden

closer to county a mouth

, a listless truck

rob mclennan
touring, in Edmonton AB