To Leonard
When midnight sheds her stars
I read your poems out loud
to inhabit your beauty
the way I imagine
you would inhabit my body,
in the morning
with birdsong in our ears
and oceans on our tongues
Confession
He takes me to his lake
where our rhythms drop to quarter.
He rhymes me into autumn
loves and lulls me to the water,
removes my summer dress
which was a dedicated season
while we laugh and we confess
for we never need a reason.
Lisa Alletson of Toronto, Canada was raised on three continents. Her poetry uses imagery inspired by the political, geographic and cultural features of each landmass. Born in the Cape and raised during apartheid, Alletson’s writing often includes elements of water and darkness in her exploration of grief, mental health, inequality, special needs parenting, and relationships. Her writing has been published in the Globe and Mail and literary journals including the Bangalore Review, Dreamers, Blank Spaces, Fresh Voices, and Dodging the Rain. Her poems ‘A Passing Oryx’ and ‘Spectrum’ were each published by the League of Canadian Poets as ‘Poem-of-the-Day’ in Poetry Pause.
Lisa writes poetry and prose on Twitter as @LotusTongue.
Feature photo by my friend Geoffrey Wren
Fevers of the Mind 