Bog People
and what voyage, spouseless, strangers
have we embarked upon?
if something untoward happens
on this unseasonable Calgary day,
unexpectedness and privacy its own crypt
earthquakes, an overflowing Bow River
pterodactyl-disaster, pre-punishment
for what we could do
(if)
in another millennium
which two Bog People would we be?
museum exhibit, exhibitionism
evolution, devolution
a game, not a game
……but surely a portent
My mind is running
on pure grief and pure love,
I want you
to know this
before us
behind glass
the forensically revivified small girl
and Red Franz, he of the auburn hank
united only by common silt or more?
Had they spoken in that life
Had she lent him mortar and pestle
Had he told her where the prettiest fishes swam,
more than avuncular?
you want more for them
premonition
or the two mangled corpses
violence wreaked upon them together
perhaps by each other
one head wrenched back in pain, in ecstasy
legs twisted together
the comic dance made fleshless
bone on pelvic bone
conjugally preserved in death
yes, yes
presentiment
My reptile brain is running
on pure grief and pure love,
I want you
or the pair who simply evaporated
–the light of new day too strong–
after casts were made of their poor bones
–brightness eats away–
their nuptial shroud has outlived them
on display the blue textile
rough with love
our eyes meet in the glass
sober startle
for what we could do
(if)
((when))
amygdala
divination
cataclysm
…pure want
…pure love
reflected
quake…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..flow
wreak………………………………………………………………….wrench
embark
flight
ignite
prehistoric
creatures flailing
lightlight
[“My mind is running/ on pure grief and pure love, I want you/ to know this,” from Don Coles, Forests of the Medieval World.]
Crystal Hurdle teaches English and Creative Writing at Capilano University in North Vancouver. BC. In October 2007, she was Guest Poet at the International Sylvia Plath Symposium at the University of Oxford, reading from After Ted & Sylvia: Poems. Her work, poetry and prose, has been published in many journals, including Canadian Literature, The Literary Review of Canada, Event, Bogg, Fireweed, and The Dalhousie Review. Teacher’s Pets, a teen novel in verse, was published in 2014.
Vallum: Contemporary Poetry 